ARW (Alternate Reality Window)
by The Not-So-Ultimate Writer
Summary: The PAW Patrol gets a machine that shows them alternate realities based on simple what-if questions. Some are hilarious. Some are dark. Some are just plain weird. What kind of questions will the team ask?
1. Prologue

**So I had this idea while trying to overcome my writer's block. This is based on the Futurama episode, _Anthology of Interest I._ If you have any suggestions as to what the PAW Patrol should ask, please give me a comment.**

It was another day at the PAW Patrol's Lookout. Except there weren't any rescues taking place. Each member of the PAW Patrol were laying around bored. They had tried playing games outside, but even that got boring after a couple hours. Skye had been playing Pup Pup Boogie with Chase a short while earlier, but the two were tired out from it. Still, without anything to do, they laid on opposite ends of the couch without anything to do. Everest was over playing Blackjack for dog biscuits with Marshall and Rocky, but it was over in twenty minutes, Everest having won all the biscuits. Suddenly, Ryder walked in with what looked like a TV. An old TV that still had the big backs on it, except a little more advanced.

"Hey, pups," he greeted, pushing it in on a cart. "Our alien friends dropped this off a minute ago."

"The aliens awe hewe?!" he said, excited that there might be something to do.

"They left just a minute ago," he said, much to the pups' disappointment.

"Wait, you guys know aliens?" Everest asked. The others were confused, then realized Everest hadn't seen them on a rescue yet.

"We help them out from time to time," Rocky said.

"Anyway," Ryder interrupted. "they dropped this off a little while ago. They explained to me what it was for, but I didn't understand them." Rocky looked at the TV.

"You know, for a race that has mastered space travel enough to come to our planet as they please, they have some old school televisions," he commented. Skye looked closer at it for a moment. It had a lever on the top for some reason instead of a button. She jumped on top, looking at it.

"Could you imagine what they would be saying if they spoke English?" she asked, pushing the lever to turn the TV on. An image popped up on the TV of the aliens and Ryder. The aliens had just gotten out of their ship with a TV.

"Greetings, Ryder of Earth, Leader of the PAW Patrol," the mother alien said. The entire team of pups were surprised at what they just heard. They never heard her speak English before. "In honor of our sacred holiday, Borlinshay, we present those we owe a debt to with a gift. This is an Alternate Reality Window, or ARW for short. If you ask it a question, it will create a simulated timeline based on the question and show you events you asked about." Skye understood. She asked what would happen if they could speak English and it showed them speaking English. "It's not one hundred percent accurate. If you ask it a question twice, there is a 0.0000001 percent chance it would give a different answer."

"I can tell it's not perfect," Ryder said. "I would never accept a gift for completing a rescue,"

" _I thank you for the offer, ma'am,"_ TV Ryder said. " _but I can't accept a gift like this for completing a rescue,"_ Ryder's eyes widened.

"Okay, it's pretty good," he admitted.

" _I see,"_ the mother alien said. _"Well I guess we'll take our leave then,"_ The alien jumped back into her space ship and took off, leaving the ARW behind.

" _You forgot your,"_ ARW Ryder was about to say, but realized that was the plan. _"Oh, what's the harm in playing with it for a little bit?"_ He shrugged and pushed it back to the lookout. The ARW turned off and that was the end of that.

"So we now have a machine that could answer some of the most ridiculous what-if questions we could have?" Everest asked. Ryder nodded. "Cool! I want to go first." Ryder stood next to the ARW ready to pull the lever and turn the machine on.

"Okay, ARW," she began. "What would happen if…"

 **It was definitely a lazy way for them to get the machine, but it was either this, or Ryder invents it. Please give me some ideas for what the pups should ask.**


	2. International Patrol

**So far, all of the questions I've had suggested to me present interest. I will use each of the ones I got so far, just not right away. I have Marshall, Rubble, and Zuma. Also, if you'd like to see any of your OCs in a later chapter in an alternate reality, please let me know and tell me his/her name with any information that could be important. (Their backstories may change since they don't exist in reality prime, which is what I'll call the real world.) From now on, I will use different text to differentiate what's happening on the ARW and what's happening in reality prime.**

 _ARW world._

Reality prime

"Okay, ARW," Everest said, getting ready to ask her question, "what would happen if the PAW Patrol was an international rescue team?" As soon as she finished her question, Ryder pulled the lever on top and joined the others in watching. Truth be told, he already felt as though his team was an international team, since he helped the princess in Barkingburg often enough. And he would help in any country that needed help. Still, it would be nice to see how his team would do in performing rescues in other countries. Some of the team was a little disappointed that the first question was such a serious one, but watched in anticipation nonetheless.

The ARW was done calibrating and showed an image. It was a much bigger lookout with many more dogs running around. There were dozens of Air Patrollers and Paw Patrollers lined up behind the lookout. The screen zoomed in through the front door, and the team was in awe. There were dozens of pups running around the base, doing different tasks. It went up the main elevator to Ryder, who was wearing a much longer jacket, almost down to his knees.

* * *

 _Ryder pushed a button on his pup pad. "Alpha Squadron, to the lookout," he pushed another button on his pad. "Domino Squadron, to the lookout." The ARW showed a split screen of Chase and Marshall._

 _"Ryder needs us!" they both shouted. It now showed just Marshall, running up to a few other pups who were sitting at a table. "Domino Squadron! Suit up!" Four of the five pups jumped from the table and took off after Marshall, who was running for one of the elevators. Upon closer inspection, you could see Everest among the group. Chase, who was with another set of pups, were already waiting in the elevator. Marshall tripped and rolled into Chase as he always does._

* * *

"Wait a minute," Chase said. Marshall was catching onto what he was thinking.

"Are we leading…" Marshall continued.

"…our own teams?" they finished at the same time. They looked at each other and grinned. "AWESOME!" they shouted, giving each other a high paw.

"Why don't I lead my own team?" Everest whined, seeing she was following Marshall.

"Well you did join the PAW Patrol way later than any of us did." Rocky pointed out.

"Maybe it's the same thewe," Zuma stated. Everest shrugged and continued watching.

* * *

 _"That's our leader," Everest laughed. "A true domino." Marshall just laughed and got off of Chase, who was laying on his belly. All ten pups lined up on opposite sides of the elevator as it rose up the lookout. A quick stop at the locker rooms, and all of them were suited up. Once the elevator made it to the top, Marshall and Chase stepped forward, with their respective teams lined up behind them._

 _"Alpha Squadron, geared up and ready, Ryder, sir!" Chase shouted._

 _"Domino Squadron, ready for a ruff and tumble rescue, Ryder, sir!" Marshall shouted._

 _"Good hustle, pups," Ryder complimented. He pushed a button on his pup pad and a hologram showed up in the middle of the room of a bunch of rocks._

 _"Alpha Squadron, there's been an avalanche in Germany, and a group of tourists have been caught in it. I need you five to head out and find any survivors. Your vehicles and equipment are already loaded onto Air Patroller C8. The robodog is already loaded with predetermined coordinates. Wheels up in five."_

 _"We're on it, Ryder, sir!" Chase declared. Alpha Squadron jumped down the slide one at a time. Ryder turned to Domino Squadron, who waited expectantly for their assignment._

 _"Domino Squadron," he pushed a button and this time it was a forest on fire. "Our satellites picked this up in Japan. We need you to contain the fire and clear the area of wildlife. Your equipment is on Air Patroller A7. The robodog is loaded with rough coordinates, but with the forest fire spreading, you'll have to manually find a safe landing spot,"_

 _"We're on it, Ryder, sir!" Marshall said, jumping onto the slide. His team followed him down the slide, in a much more rapid manner than Alpha Squadron. Once they reached the bottom, they each were bumped off the slide by the next in line and fell in a pile on the ground. The pups near the bottom looked at the team in amazement._

 _"How are they one of our best teams?" one of them whispered to another._

 _"I hear it's mainly thanks to Captain Marshall's experience and Everest's natural talent these days," another one responded. "They're even starting to catch up to Alpha Squadron."_

* * *

"My team's starting to catch up, Chase," Marshall teased his friend. "You better watch out."

"You heard that pup. It's mainly thanks to Everest," he argued, grinning.

* * *

 _Once on the Air Patroller, Domino Squadron geared up for prepped for their assignment. One of the pups was filling up the water cannons on his pup pack. Everest was getting her grappling hook loaded properly into her pup pack. Although she probably wasn't going to need it, she was always glad to have it._

 _"I always respect how you're more prepped than the rest of the team." Marshall stated, surprising her. She turned around to face him. "Eighty percent of our missions, you don't ever use that, but you always have it ready." Everest smiled._

 _"Isn't it common sense that I'm ready for anything?" Everest asked rhetorically._

 _"We live in a world where common sense isn't very common," he chuckled. Everest knew it was true. Some of the rescues they've conducted were to save people who have made very basic mistakes. Who accidentally throws their only map into a fire, anyway? "I still find it impressive that you got Rocky to modify your pack to be able to use that as a secondary attachment."_

 _"It was originally a favor." Everest said. "Then I told him that if it works, we could modify our pup packs to be more adaptable." Thanks to that, all of the pup packs now had detachable gadgets. It made it so they could attach a water cannon for one mission, then change it to have a shovel and drill the next mission._

 _"It was a good idea," Marshall admitted. "I never pictured that as Fire and EMT Pup, I would start practicing using construction equipment too."_

* * *

"You're way different in this, Marshall," Rubble said. "You're usually not that serious."

"You should see him when he has to lead." Skye said, remembering one of the few times when Marshall had to take charge. "He drops the jokes and is down to business."

"Being a leader does that to you," Chase agreed.

"Hey, Ryder," Rocky said. "Do you think we could make our pup packs like that?" Ryder thought about it.

"We could try, but I'm pretty sure you have a lot more resources in that place than we do." He said.

* * *

 _"Attention," a voice called from the speaker. "We're about to reach our coordinates. Captain, you might want to see this."_

 _"On my way, Fives," Marshall called out. Fives was given his nickname as the 55th pup to join the PAW Patrol. He was Marshall's second-in-command whenever needed, since he was the second oldest member of the team. He turned toward one of the other pups. "Echo, would you mind filling up my pack as well? I'm sorry, I should've been doing it myself."_

 _"No problem, Marshall, sir," the one named Echo replied, walking to the red pup pack and filling it up with water. It's a good thing the Air Patrollers come with vast water reserves. Not having any more prep work to be done, Everest joined Marshall in the cockpit of the plane._

 _"What's up, Fives?" Marshall asked, before looking out the window. One quick glance was enough to make him say, "Nevermind." The fire had already spread to cover over a hundred feet in diameter. The smoke was so dense, it was hard to see very far. The cliffs overlooking the fire were probably the only place not on fire._

 _"I don't see an obvious landing spot." Fives said. "I could land on the cliffs."_

 _"Don't," Everest interrupted. "Sorry, but landing that high over the fire is dangerous. The smoke will be too thick for us to act properly."_

 _"She's right," Marshall said, backing up her claim. "Get the water landing gear ready. We'll land on the lake over there." Fives nodded and did as he said. Marshall ran back to the team, ready to give orders. "Bad news, team. The fire's already spread pretty far. We won't have a close landing spot, so once we touch down, we need to act fast. Echo," he turned toward the youngest pup, who was already done filling up the pup pack. "Once we land, get started on the fireline. We'll need to quickly strangle the fire as soon as possible. Don't cut any corners, but we need to hurry." Echo saluted Marshall, who nodded in response. "Everest, you, Fives, and Jogger will keep the fire back. Your number one goal is to make sure it doesn't spread. The fireline is to be twenty feet out. Any closer and it could start too soon. Any farther, and it will take too long. I'll go in and try to find any wildlife that hasn't gotten out yet." Echo was looking nervous and Marshall could tell. "Something on your mind, pup?"_

 _"It's just…" Echo began and then sighed. "We've never handled a fire this big. What if I can't handle it?" Marshall walked straight in front of him._

 _"I know you can handle it," he reassured the young pup. "I trained you for this." The confident look in his eyes gave Echo what he needed._

* * *

"Marshall, why don't you always show that level of confidence?" Skye asked. "It's pretty attractive."

"Yeah, it's weird," Everest said. "I know you can do it, you just don't,"

"I usually don't have to since I'm not the leader," he said. "Leading isn't a game. If I don't have confidence in myself, who else would?" Skye and Everest could see some similarities between the two sides of Marshall and realized this could really have happened. Everest blushed, seeing this side of Marshall was attractive, but she preferred it when he was being himself.

* * *

 _"Landing in three… two… one…" Fives said. "LET'S MOVE OUT!" As soon as he said that, all five pups ran out of the plane, pup packs and breathing masks on. Marshall ran straight into the fire, much to the dismay of his team. They trusted their leader, but sometimes they found him to be reckless. Everest and Fives started to spray the surrounding trees and grass with their water cannons, making sure it was as drenched as possible to avoid ignition. Jogger kept spraying the fire, keeping the flames at bay. Echo was digging a trench with his shovel attachment to fill with twigs, leaves, and oil. He moved as fast as he could, but made sure that it was still as safe as possible. Marshall was running through the fire, picking up small bunnies and herding deer along with him. Periodically, he ran out of the fire, bringing all of the animals with him to drop them off where it's safe and ran back in. After thirty minutes of this routine, the fireline was three quarters of the way done._

 _"Marshall, we're almost done with the fireline. Do you have all of the animals out yet?" Everest said over the pup tags._

 _"I think so, but I'm going to do one more sweep, just to be sure." Marshall said. "Double back and make sure the fire hasn't spread too far. Fives and Jogger, keep focused." They did as told and he ran through the already doomed forest, intent on making sure all the critters were evacuated. However, close to where he started, there was a bear cub just outside of a cave. Marshall was about to try to guide it out of the fire, but noticed a burning tree was about to fall on it. "Look out!" he ran and tackled the cub back into the cave, just as the tree came down. Everest had just come by and saw the whole thing._

* * *

"No, Marshall!" Everest shouted, scared that her friend might have died. The others were starting to have similar worries, knowing this wasn't just a TV show with clichés. This is another way things could have turned out. It was real in a way.

"I think I made it into the cave." Marshall said, hopefully, getting close to the TV. The team was watching in anticipation, wondering what became of the other version of their friend.

* * *

 _"Marshall!" she shouted, running up to the mouth of the cave, now covered in a burning tree. She put out the blazing tree with the water cannon and tried to contact her captain. "Marshall, come in! Marshall, can you hear me?"_

 _"Eve… I'm fine… Focus… mission first!" his voice came in choppy, probably due to the combination of the heat and the rocks blocking the signal._

 _"Attention, Dominoes," Everest called. "Marshall's trapped in a cave."_

 _"What?!" Fives shouted. "We've gotta help him!"_

 _"Negative," Everest said, surprising the team. "We need to put out this fire first. We don't have the time or resources to save him_ and _put out the fire. Once it's out, I can use the claws on the snow plow to move the tree that's blocking it."_

 _"But it's Marshall!" Jogger disagreed. "He's our friend!"_

 _"And our friend will scold us if the forest is still on fire when he gets out of there," Fives argued. "She's right. Besides, we all heard him. He's fine for now."_

 _"I'll keep the fire at bay over here. Everest out." She turned off her tag and used her water cannon to keep the fire at bay._

* * *

"How could you leave Mawshall like that?!" Zuma exclaimed.

"I didn't!" Everest defended herself. She pointed to the Everest on the ARW. "She did."

"She made the right call," Marshall stated. All of the other pups looked at him in shock. "A tree that big, she would've needed vehicles to move it and none of them would get through safely with all that fire."

"She even put out the fire that would eat up his oxygen," Ryder added.

"Plus, if the mama bear's in there, she probably wouldn't have reacted very well to the forest on fire. He's probably safer with her in there than he would be with her out there," Chase finished. All the other pups thought about it and knew that they were right. Still, it didn't sit right with them to leave a member of the team alone.

* * *

 _Twenty minutes later, the fireline was complete and burning. The team sat back and watched as the line strangled the larger forest fire, depleting all of its incoming oxygen. Within minutes the first fire was out, the second one following close behind._

 _"Now that that's done," Echo said, turning to Everest. "Let's get our capt… Everest?" He looked around and didn't see her. He heard a noise, however, and looked toward the Air Patroller, where the snow plow was driving from. Everest had already been on her way to it before the fire even started. She drove straight to the cave she saw Marshall dive into with a bear cub, preying he was still alright. She picked up the trees with the plow's retractable claws and moved them, clearing the way for her to get in._

 _"Marshall!" she called. "Are you in there?" Suddenly, she heard a growl from inside. Before she could react, a much bigger bear came out, ready to attack. Everest was getting scared, thinking that this bear must have eaten Marshall. She was about to scream and run, but she heard a voice from farther in the cave._

* * *

"Oh no, I'm about to die!" she shouted, scared for her other self. "Don't hurt me!" Unsure of what else to do, Marshall and Rocky, who were the closest to her, wrapped her in a hug to calm her down. After a few seconds, her breathing slowed, and she calmed down. "Thanks, guys."

"No problem, Ev," Rocky said.

"Yeah," Marshall said. "Besides, if a bear really did attack you, it would have to get through all of us to do it," Everest smiled, glad she had so many good friends these days.

* * *

 _"Stop!" she heard Marshall say. "She's my friend." She looked behind the bear and there he was, riding on the back of the bear cub she saw earlier. The cub stepped in between his mother and Everest, keeping her safe. The mama bear, realizing Everest meant no harm, went back into the cave. By this time, Domino Squadron had already come up to the cave. Marshall turned to face them. "Hey, team." He looked around at the forest, now turned halfway to ash. "Excellent work with the fire."_

 _"Marshall," Everest said, still in shock. "Did you just stop a big grizzly bear from killing me?"_

 _"Yeah," he said as if it wasn't anything important. "I think she was grateful for me saving her cub."_

 _"That brings me to my question," Jogger interrupted. "Why are you riding on its back?" Marshall sat up, showing his back paw to the team. It had black burn marks on his left leg, along with his paw wrapped in bandages._

 _"When the tree came down, it hit my leg and broke my paw," he answered. He pet the bear cub, making it sigh. "It was worth it. This little guy is so cool,"_

* * *

"Only Marshall could stop a big grizzly bear with a couple words," Chase said. "ride on the back of its cub who is two and half times his size, and then pet the cub like a cat and call him 'little guy', all while still making sense." The other could only nod.

* * *

 _After saying goodbye to the bears, the team got back onto the Air Patroller, Marshall driving the snow plow since he couldn't walk yet. He sat there during the entire ride home, the team coming up to him to ask and answer questions._

 _Once everything was finished, he called Everest up to his seat. She walked up, curious as to what he had to say._

 _"Everyone here is telling me how well you took control of the situation." He said. She blushed, rubbing the back of her head._

 _"It wasn't anything special," Everest said sheepishly. "I just considered what you would do and said it over the comm links,"_

 _"You acted with a calm head and thought rationally when you had every reason to panic." Marshall said. "Don't pass it off as no big deal."_

 _"You ran into a blazing inferno to save the forest animals," Everest said argumentatively. "If I complimented that, you wouldn't be acting as if that was a big deal." Marshall chuckled._

 _"True," Marshall admitted. "but that's expected of me. As a leader, I'm supposed to rise above and beyond the call of duty. As a friend, I do that plus ten percent, so no one else has to. Yet you stood your ground against Fives, who is your commanding officer, and did what needed to be done."_

 _"It's as you say sometimes. The strongest orders don't come from up the chain of command, but come from experience, wisdom, and heart." Marshall just smiled._

 _"You are a great rescue pup. And you'll only get better from here on." He complimented. "Go take a rest. You've earned it." Everest nodded and went to a small mattress._

* * *

Skye and Everest could only blush, realizing that this strong, confident, courageous leader, was really Marshall. It's still hard for them to wrap their heads around.

"Mawshall, you'we making the west of us boys look bad," Zuma complained.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm kind of good at it."

"We can tell it's you," Rubble said. "but it's like something horrible happened that made you step up and be the leader others needed you to be,"

"Rubble, that only happens in movies," Chase said. "Marshall can and always can be like that."

* * *

 _When they got back to headquarters, Ryder and a team of medics were waiting for Domino Squadron. The medics checked on Marshall, while Ryder led Everest back to the command center of the lookout. Everest was unsure what the chief of the PAW Patrol was going to say. Perhaps he was unhappy with her orders to partially leave her friend behind. Even if it turned out alright, she wasn't completely happy with it herself, either._

 _"Four months ago, you joined Domino Squadron, as per Marshall's request." He said, finally. "I have my doubts when decisions are made by favoritism, especially after you know what happened." He turned to her, a sad look in his eyes. Everest nodded, knowing what he was referring to._

 _"Rubble was a good troop." She said. "I've heard the story a hundred times from Domino Squadron. And I don't think he would've changed what happened if he had the chance."_

* * *

Everyone silenced. The video paused, sensing that this needed to process in their heads for a moment. In another reality, Rubble had died during a rescue. Finally, one of them spoke.

"Well," Rubble started glumly, "I called it,"

"Marshall still is a good leader, regardless," Chase said.

* * *

 _"Do you think that made it any easier for Marshall?" Ryder asked. Everest shook her head sadly, knowing the loss that resulted. "Anyway, I've had my doubts when you joined the team. A rookie that beat all of the tests in record time and was asked to join a squad by a friend. It was almost a repeat. You have dashed out every single doubt I had, though." Everest smiled and wagged her tail. "Still, I was surprised when a month ago, I was looking for potential captains for teams and Marshal recommended you." And then her jaw hit the floor._

 _"He recommended me?" she said, completely in shock._

 _"He usually recommends Fives, but he turns down the offer every time I ask him, saying Domino is where he belongs." He took out a clipboard with information on it. "You're probably the fastest rookie to be recommended for a captain, so I asked Marshall to watch you for a month and make one hundred percent sure that he recommended you. Fives was in on it as well."_

 _"He recommended ME?" she repeated, still trying to process that. She never dreamed of making captain so early, but now it was happening. Ryder ignored this, completely understanding her shock._

 _"They've been sure for a while, but they both said that your actions from this mission solidified it." He looked away from his clipboard and looked Everest in the eye. "If you choose to deny this promotion, you return to Domino Squadron. Nothing changes, you go on doing your job as if this meeting never happened. No one will think less of you, knowing how much pressure there would be to lead your own team. If you choose to accept it, however, you will spend the next two months leading the Domino Squadron to train for your own while Marshall's out of commission. You will also be training your replacement on Domino Squadron. Once it's done, you will look through the reserves and pick out four pups to be put on your team." Everest was in shock. Still, she knew what to do._

 _"I accept." She stated proudly. Ryder smiled, glad that he was seeing such a promising rookie move up so fast. "It will be called the Flurry Squadron,"_

* * *

The ARW turned off, leaving all the pups in awe, except for Everest, who was cheering.

"I made captain in record time!" she cheered. "That is awesome!" Marshall, breaking from his shock, walked over to Everest.

"Congratulations, Everest," he said to her, breaking her from her cheering. She turned around to hug him.

"Thank you, Marshall!" she shouted. She was starting to forget that didn't actually happen to _her_ , but it didn't matter. She was happy.

"I still can't believe I died," Rubble said. "Still, at least I probably saved a lot of lives."

"Just don't ever make the choice during a rescue," Chase ordered. "I don't think any of us would be able to deal with it."

"Yes, sir," he said.

"Okay, who's next?" Ryder said. Marshall raised his paw.

"I've got one," he walked up to the machine. "Okay, ARW, what would have happened if…"

 **Well this came up longer than I meant it to. I started typing and as I went along, I got more into it. I think this will be a fun project for me. I know this came up kind of dark for a moment, but tell me if this was a good one.**

 **If you have any requests for a future alternate reality, please let me know.**


	3. Marskye

**Okay, I wasn't sure how to do this one. I'm a little out of my field of expertise with this one, but as Brian Tracy once said, "Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new." (I have no idea who that is. I just like that quote.)**

 **Also, I feel it's fair to credit the one who comes up with these suggestions. For the International PAW Patrol, it was SharpDragonKlaw. I had fun writing that one, more than I had thought I would. Thank you for taking part. For this chapter, I thank Supreme Divine Alpha CAT 137.**

* * *

"What would happen if…" Marshall began, but was stopped by Zuma whispering into his ear. "…if Skye and I got together?" Realizing what he said, he stopped Ryder. "No, that's not what I meant to say!"

"Aw, come on, Mawshall," Zuma pleaded. "I know you used to have a cwush on hew," he blushed, knowing it was true. This was met with raised eyebrows from the other pups. "Ask it how it would have happened."

"Why not use it for your turn?" he countered.

"It doesn't have anything to do with me, so it would be weiwd to ask," Now the other pups were curious too.

"I'm curious too," Chase said, slightly antagonistically. Marshall gulped, giving in.

"What would have happened if I had acted on my feelings for Skye?" he said, unsure of the results. Ryder pulled the lever, while Skye was about to speak up. Before she could, however, the ARW showed an image of her.

" _Come on, Marshall_ ," it said. " _ask it how you mean it._ " The pups, gasped, unsure of what to think. " _The ARW has an incredible and unique AI unit. It can tell when something has actually happened in reality prime,_ "

"Reality prime?" Ryder asked. "You mean this one?" The image of Skye nodded, before the screen turned off. The pups thought about it for a moment, before realizing what the ARW said.

"Actually happened?" Chase repeated, before his eyes widened. "You already asked her out?!"

"Chase and I will be in the lookout tower for a moment," Marshall stated, walking into the elevator, with the German Shepherd following behind.

"What are they going to talk about?" Skye asked. Thinking quickly, Rocky came up with something.

"Chase and Marshall are best friends," he said. "So I could imagine Chase doesn't like the fact that Marshall kept it secret," Skye nodded, understanding. Ryder was examining the ARW for a moment, before I found something interesting.

"Hey, pups," Ryder called. "There's an HDMI-out port on this ARW,"

"Really?" Rocky asked. "That's awesome!"

"So we can watch this on the big TV?" Rubble asked, which Ryder nodded.

* * *

(Lookout Tower, Chase and Marshall)

"I thought we were friends, Marshall!" Chase shouted.

"We are friends," Marshall said quickly.

"Then how could you do this?" he asked. "Why would you ask my crush out?"

"We weren't friends yet at the time," he said, trying to break Chase out of his anger. "At the time, you were always making fun of me because of my clumsiness." Chase heard this, calming down a little. He did remember a time when he used to always be annoyed by Marshall and his clumsiness. It wasn't his fault, but Chase still found it to be a liability on rescues.

"You still could have told me," he said, looking away.

"And you would have reacted about the same," Chase nodded, guiltily. "It doesn't matter, anyways. She said no then, she'd say no, now," Chase looked up, surprised. Marshall hung his head, sad.

"She turned you down?" Chase patted him on the back, feeling bad for snapping. "Why?"

"She wouldn't tell me. She just said that she can't." Marshall sighed, bringing his head back up to meet his best friend's eyes. "It's actually the reason why I agreed to this one. I want to know why,"

"I'm sorry for getting so mad," Chase apologized.

"I'm sorry for keeping it a secret," Marshall raised his paw, putting it up for an apology high paw. As Chase accepted it, they heard the elevator coming up. They looked over to see the rest of the pups and Ryder with the ARW.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we figured it would've been enough time," Ryder said. Skye walked up to Chase.

"Chase, you shouldn't be mad at Marshall for keeping secrets," she said. Unsure how she knew, he looked over to Rocky, who mouthed, "Just go with it".

"We've come to an understanding and have let it go," he said, trying to be vague in his response. Skye smiled and hugged the both of them together.

"Good. I don't like it when my friends are fighting over something stupid like a secret," she said. She walked away and Marshall whispered to Chase.

"Either she's already knows, or is _really_ dense," Marshall said, which made Chase's ears stand up in attention. While they were talking, Ryder had already wired the ARW to the lookout monitor. It was only slightly bigger than the TV downstairs, but it was still bigger. The pups got comfortable as Marshall was ready to ask his question.

"Okay, ARW, what would have happened if, when I had acted on my feelings, Skye had said yes?" some of the other pups picked up, realizing that Skye must've said no. He looked back to the other pups. "Keep in mind, this might take place in a time before Chase and I were friends." He laid on a beanbag between Chase and Everest, both of whom scooted closer. They had a feeling this wouldn't be very fun for him. The ARW had finished calibrating and showed an image of Marshall and Chase.

* * *

 _Chase had just finished cleaning his pup house when Marshall, who had accidentally fallen down the hill, hit the bucket at the bottom. The bucket was full of soapy water, which splattered over the side of Chase's house._

" _I just finished drying it off!" he yelled, annoyed with his new teammate. He turned to glare at Marshall, who was just rising to his feet._

" _Sorry," Marshall apologized, looking at the pup house. "At least it's just soapy water. It'll come right off._

" _You still set me back," Chase complained, before taking a deep breath. It wasn't worth getting mad over, so he let it go. He looked toward Marshall, who looked different. "Well you look extra clean. Got a date or something?"_

" _No, I just took a bath," he said quickly._

" _You took one yesterday," Chase said. "You usually only take one a week,"_

" _What are you, my mom?" Marshall said, walking away. Chase just laughed._

" _Yeah, the idea of you dating is ridiculous anyway," he said, getting the hose to spray off his house. "Who would want to date a klutz like you?" Marshall sunk his head slightly at this, but walked away, anyway._

* * *

All the pups were shocked at what they just heard Chase say, unsure of how to react. Some were glaring at him, having seen him be a bully.

"Keep in mind, we still weren't friends yet," Chase defended.

"You didn't tell us you were a bully," Rubble countered. Chase's ears folded, knowing the youngest pup was right.

"I admit I wasn't nice," he said, guilty, "but I've grown up a lot since then."

"It's true." Marshall interjected, vouching for Chase. "It wasn't until a couple missions later that he explained why he was so mean to me,"

"What could his reason have been?" Everest asked. Chase sighed.

"I saw his clumsiness as a liability," he said, recalling his feelings on the matter. "not only to the team, but to himself. If it affected a mission wrong, he might've not walked away from it. And I would've felt it on my conscience." Skye had a bit of a somber look, recalling Chase tell him this. "Then during a mission, he saved me from a piece of falling wood. My leg was dislocated and I wasn't walking smoothly. Then an attacker, who was the one who made the wood fall on me, tried to shoot Marshall, but I was faster and hit him with a tennis ball. We saved each other's lives and I was the one disabled at that point. It put things in a new perspective," Marshall carried on from that point.

"We've been best friends ever since," he said, calming his friends down.

* * *

" _What if he's right?" he said to himself, before shaking his head. "No, gotta be confident. That's what dad said. Always confident," he held his head high and walked to the pink pup house. It had been there for a month and a half, but Skye rarely had a chance to work on making it her own. She took every chance she had to decorate it and make it feel like home. It didn't matter to her, since in the two months she knew the others, they had already felt like family. Still, she decided it would be nice to have a sunshade over the entrance, so she was trying to draw the idea to see if Ryder could make it work. "H-hi, S-Skye," Marshall greeted, getting the attention of the small pup._

" _Hey, Marshall," she responded. "How are you doing?"_

" _Oh, I'm good," he said, trying to stay confident in himself. "I was wondering if I might ask you something." This made her curious as to what he had to say. She put her pencil down and walked up to Marshall._

" _Yes?" she asked. Marshall gulped, finding her eyes to be extremely pretty._

" _W-would you have d-dinner with me at M-Mr. Porter's tonight?" he asked, trying to keep his words steady. Skye's eyes widened, realizing she'd just been asked out on a date. She examined her options for a couple moments._

* * *

Marshall started whimpering, knowing what _really_ happened next.

"What's wong, Mawshall?" Zuma asked, looking at his friend.

"This is where I turned him down," Skye had said, wondering how this would differ to reality prime. The other pups nodded, understanding their friend's sudden sadness. Zuma was starting to feel guilty for tricking Marshall into reliving this.

* * *

 _After Skye had said nothing for a little bit, Marshall felt his confidence dwindle._

" _I'm sorry, this was a stupid idea," he said, backing away. "Let's just forget this-,"_

" _Okay," Skye finally said, stopping him in his tracks. He gaped at her, wanting confirmation on what he just heard. "Okay, let's go to dinner tonight," Marshall felt his heart leap and couldn't help but do a small jump in excitement, making her giggle._

" _I've asked him to set up a private table in an hour," Marshall said, still excited at the prospect that he was actually going on a real date._

" _I'll meet you at the entrance of the lookout," Skye said, blushing before running into her pup house to brush her fur._

* * *

"You had a table set up?" Skye asked, realizing how devastating her rejection must've been.

"Yeah, but it wasn't a big deal," Marshall said, waving it off. "I told Mr. Porter that it was so you and I could bond as teammates, but later told him that you weren't comfortable with that yet." Skye still whimpered, wondering if any of the other boys she'd rejected had done anything similar. Chase on the other hand, patted his friend. He knew when Marshall was sad, and this was one of those times. Everest must've caught on too, as she had done the same.

* * *

 _An hour later, the two had met in front of the lookout. Marshall had started his firetruck so that they wouldn't have to walk. Marshall had told Ryder that he would be trying to build his friendship with Skye, so they'd be hanging out on their own. Marshall didn't think he fooled him in the slightest bit, but knew Ryder wouldn't call him out._

" _Have fun," he said, waving at the two as they drove away. Chase had seen this and asked him where they were going. "Marshall thinks he was being sneaky, but they're going on a date." Chase gaped, feeling a tug in his chest._

" _What?!" he shouted, surprising Ryder. Ryder knew of his feelings, but didn't say anything. He figured it's best to just let it go. Chase recovered his composure, realizing he shouted at his leader. "Sorry, Ryder, I just think that romance could lead to complications within the team," Ryder raised his eyebrows._

* * *

"Oh, that's how you feel, huh, Chase?" Rocky teased, making Chase flustered a bit.

"I was more by-the-books back then," he said, trying to deflect the question.

"What do you think now?" Skye asked, not catching on to Rocky's teasing. Chase cleared his throat.

"While I do think that there could be complications resulting, if the team doesn't suffer, then there's no harm," he answered truthfully.

"Interesting," Everest said, snickering.

* * *

 _Marshall and Skye arrived at the restaurant, where Mr. Porter lead them back to a private room that he reserved for special guests. It was nicely decorated with baby blue curtains surrounding a medium-sized round table in a circular booth. The two sat down at the table, stealing glances at each other. The awkward silence lasted for all of two minutes before Skye broke it._

" _So, what made you ask me out?" she asked curiously. Marshall look at her, confused._

" _Why_ wouldn't _I?" he asked in response. "You're beautiful, funny, athletic, sweet, and overall fun to be around," She blushed at the compliments, not expecting to be flattered so quickly. "My question is: Why did you say yes?" Skye thought for a moment._

" _I'm not a hundred percent sure," she admitted. "I know the reasons I like you. You're funny, strong, playful, and are always positive, no matter what's in front of you,"_

" _Don't forget spotted," Marshall added, confusing Skye. "It's not important. I just felt like pointing it out," Skye could only giggle, finding it funny. It may have ruined the mood, but at least it wasn't bad. They looked at the menu and agreed to split a large pizza. "Lots of pepperoni?"_

" _Can we add pineapple?" Skye asked. Marshall nodded, making her happy. The pizza came and Marshall and Skye each ate a slice. "I love pineapple," Hearing this, Marshall took the pineapple off his slices and put them on Skye's side of the pizza. Skye's eyes widened. "You didn't have to do that,"_

" _True, but I wanted to," he responded._

* * *

"Wow, Marshall," Rocky said. "You shared your food with her. I've known you for years and I've never seen you share food."

"It's not that impressive," Chase said, kind of laughing.

"I hate pineapple on pizza," Marshall admitted.

"Yet you got it on the pizza?" Rubble said.

"If me and that Marshall have the same thought pattern, he was probably thinking it couldn't be that bad and Skye likes pineapple, but when he ate it, he really didn't like it, so he looked for an excuse and it was only sheer luck that Skye had said that."

"It's little things like that that the giwls like," Zuma said, making Marshall ponder for a moment. His thoughts went unvoiced for now.

* * *

 _When the pizza was gone, the two made small talk for a little bit, asking about their lives before the PAW Patrol. Skye had been raised in an acting family of dogs, all of which were fantastic actors. Her mother and father were looking forward to her joining the family business, but were disappointed when they found out how much she wanted to be a pilot. They tried to change her mind, but were making no progress as Skye didn't feel right as an actress. They had come to accept her decision eventually, but still were unhappy about it. They helped her find a trainer and eventually helped her join the PAW Patrol._

 _Marshall's parents were firefighters, but had been prone to the same clumsiness that Marshall had. Sure, they'd had successful rescues, but his parents were still considered weak links in the fire departments they'd been in. Marshall didn't care, though. He had been proud of his parents regardless. Even being accident prone, they did everything in their power to help others until their final mission. The final mission that they gave their lives for. Skye had sat next to Marshall, hugging the Dalmatian with all she could after hearing that story. Feeling the need to break the tension again, he heard a song on the radio and turned it up, breaking the hug._

" _Let's dance a little," he said, making Skye jump up. "This is a date. We're supposed to be having fun," She smiled, knowing once again that he transitioned from seriousness to playfulness, but at least he was smiling. They spent a while dancing, Skye being much better than Marshall, but it was fun nonetheless. At the middle of a song, they both did a synchronized flip, Skye landing on her feet. Marshall, however, landed on his face, back legs up in the air. Getting an idea, she jumped up and landed her paws on Marshall's and, thankful that he was strong, flipped off his paws, doing a double somersault in the air before coming down. Marshall, by this point, fell on his back. Skye came down on his stomach, trying to keep some weight off Marshall so it didn't hurt. She started to snort, finding it fun to do such a great trick. Marshall clutched his stomach. Despite Skye's efforts, she still landed pretty hard, knocking the wind out of him. Regardless, she was still having fun and that was all that mattered._

* * *

"That looked like it hurt," Everest said.

"It probably did," Marshall agreed, rubbing his stomach.

"Did that actually happen with your parents?" Rubble asked sadly. Marshall nodded somberly. He has moved on since it was the only thing he could do, but it still hurt now and then.

"How did it happen?" Rocky asked. "If you don't mind my asking,"

"It's no problem," Marshall replied. "A three-alarm fire was burning down an apartment building. They sent in a couple squads to try to get as many people out as possible, but none of the firefighters knew about the gas leak in the basement. My dad smelled it, so he told my mom to let the chief know and to hurry out all the civilians. He jumped down and used his outfit to block the gas as much as possible before the fire got worse. They said ten minutes later, when my dad hadn't come out, my mom ran in to get him, but the gas leak wasn't stopped enough. A couple seconds later, the gas caught fire and the fire went up to a four-alarm. They didn't make it out." All the pups and Ryder gave the sad pup a group hug.

"They died as heroes," Ryder said, giving honor to the two fallen canines.

* * *

 _Eventually, Mr. Porter came in and saw the pizza gone and asked if they'd like dessert. They politely said no, and left._

" _We've still got some time left before we're supposed to get back to the lookout." Marshall pointed out. "Feel like taking a walk through the park?" She nodded happily, and they left the truck, knowing the park was only a little way down the road. The park was unsurprisingly empty, since it was almost 8:30 at night. The two walked, almost in silence through the park, just enjoying each other's company. They came across a pond, where Skye had an idea._

" _Want to take a little late-night swim?" she asked, turning toward the Dalmatian, who was nowhere to be found. Before she could ask for him, she heard a splash and felt water hit her back. She turned on her paws and saw Marshall already in the water._

* * *

The pups had laughed at Marshall's antics, knowing that is exactly what he would do.

This is a nice scene and all," Rocky said to the other pups' agreement, "but something feels… off. I don't know what it is, but it just gives off an inconsistent vibe."

"Yeah, I'm getting that too," Chase agreed. He had been jealous of Marshall, but even he couldn't deny that the two were cute together. Yet the pups all agreed that something just felt off about the scenario in front of them.

* * *

" _Jump in!" he said excitedly. Grinning across her face, she did an extra high jump over Marshall's head into the middle. The resulting splash wasn't very big, but it was close enough to hit Marshall directly in the face. He laughed at the water and used his paw to splash her back. They had a little splash fight until something caught Marshall's eye. He saw a little sparkle under the water in the moonlight. It was faint, but it was enough to dive under and grab for it. Skye was confused from where he was going, She was about to follow him, but he came up before she could dive underwater._

" _Where'd you go?" she asked. "You were starting to worry me," In response, he held up a necklace. It was a red gem embroidered in gold. Upon closer inspection, it was plastic, but still looked pretty, especially in the moonlight. Marshall ran it through the water to get the leftover mud off and put it around Skye's neck. In response, she hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Marshall," The two crawled out of the water, drying off in the open air before heading back to Marshall's truck. In the meantime, Marshall had to ask one question._

* * *

Marshall didn't know why, but he felt as though the next two minutes of the video might answer all the questions he'd had. He perked his ears to listen very carefully, trying his best not to miss a word. Chase had too, wondering what could have been with his friend and his crush.

* * *

" _So, do you think there will be a second date?" he asked, curious. Skye pondered it for a moment, trying to find the words to express._

" _Do you remember when I said I wasn't completely sure if I should say yes?" Marshall nodded, wondering where this was going. "My main reason is because I felt at that moment, whatever my answer would be would change our relationship forever." Marshall didn't understand what she meant entirely, but didn't interrupt. "From the moment I stepped onto the lookout, I knew that the PAW Patrol would be my family. I knew that whomever would be on the team would be some of the most important people and pups in my life._

" _So when you asked me to dinner, I felt that I had to decide fast. If I said yes, that would mean we're officially moving toward a romantic path, while if I said no, I'd cement the fact that we'd be in a more sibling relationship, after a little time to get our minds focused. Now, however, I know that feeling was ridiculous." This surprised Marshall. He didn't expect her to contradict herself. "Yes or no, I can't shake a brother feeling from you, no matter how hard I try." Marshall's eyes widened in understanding. She didn't see him as a boyfriend, but more of a brother. Somehow, that doesn't make him as sad as he thought it would. "It feels like things like that are destined to be, no matter what,"_

" _Yeah, I get what you mean," Marshall agreed. "I'm glad you said yes, though. If you didn't, I probably would have spent the rest of my life wondering why you didn't like me,"_

* * *

Skye whimpered in guilt, realizing what she put Marshall through. She realized that even though she had rejected him, she should have at least properly explained why. She got up and walked over to Marshall. She hugged the spotted pup as hard as she could.

"I'm sorry I put you through that," she said. Marshall smiled and returned the hug, knowing he wouldn't ever want to break their sibling bond.

"It didn't matter," Marshall said. "I grew a little more, thanks to that," Skye smiled and let go of the hug, laying on the other side of Chase.

* * *

 _Getting up, Marshall stretched out his legs, ready to go. "Let's head back to the lookout, sister," Skye got to her paws, yawning as she did._

" _Okay, brother," she said. "let's go," On the way back, she couldn't help but say, "You're still the funniest, strongest, playful, and most positive pup I know,"_

" _Don't forget spotted," he said, making her giggle. "You're still the nicest, prettiest, and most fun pup I know,"_

" _What happened to athletic?" she teased._

" _You are athletic, but I'd say Chase is more so," he said. She shrugged, knowing it's true. Once they got onto the firetruck, Marshall drove back to the lookout. Skye had fallen asleep on the way back. They pulled up and Marshall picked her up on his back, not wanting to wake her. Carefully, he lowered his ladder and walked down to bring her to her own pup house. "She's much heavier than she looks,"_

* * *

Skye threw a random pillow next to her at Marshall, who caught it and threw it back at her.

"He said it, not me," he defended playfully.

"He _is_ you," Skye countered, jumping on top of him, causing them both to laugh.

* * *

 _He passed right by Chase's house, where he appeared to be sleeping. He tiptoed past the German Shepherd and placed Skye into her pup house. He moved back to his truck and set it back into pup house mode. Before he could go in, however, he was stopped by a voice._

" _So how was the date?" it asked. Marshall turned around and Chase was right there._

" _We agreed that it doesn't feel right being a couple," Marshall said, brushing him off. Chase grinned._

" _You screwed it up," Chase jeered._

" _No, we actually agreed that we work better as siblings than a couple," Marshall said, annoyed with his teammate. He laid down in his pup house, knowing it wouldn't change his rival's mind._

" _Whatever you say," Chase said, turning back to his pup house. Before he left, however, he walked up to Marshall and patted him on the back._

" _Good job showing courage," he complimented, "and I'm sorry it didn't work out." Marshall smiled._

" _Thanks, Chase,"_

* * *

"Well, that was eye opening," Marshall commented. Skye agreed, still holding onto him.

"It was sweet," Everest commented. "Even past Chase had a nice moment at the end,"

"I'd argue about that, but I was a real jerk before,"

" _Was?"_ Marshall jeered, playfully, before getting a punch in the shoulder from his best friend. "There is just one thing that's bugging me about this," He looked up at Skye. "Why didn't you explain it to me before?" Skye bit her lip, knowing the reason was a little selfish.

"When I had said no, I knew that I made my choice then," Skye said. "If I had told you right afterward, you might have tried to change my mind, but I couldn't let you. I needed a brother more than a boyfriend,"

"Yeah, you were completely lost without us that third month, Marshall joked, getting a small punch from Skye. "Hey, Chase, is there a mosquito on my shoulder right here? I thought I felt one land there."

"Okay, we get it," Zuma cut in. "You two awe good siblings. It's my tuwn now," Marshall jumped up.

"No, you used my turn for something you wanted to see," Marshall said, stopping Zuma. "Now I use your turn for something I want to see," Zuma rolled his eyes at Marshall, deciding to just get it over with.

"Fine, what do you want?" Marshall whispered something in his ear, making his eyes widen. "What?! No way am I asking it that!"

"Come on, Zuma," Chase said. "It's only fair," Zuma wanted to fight it, but he could see that none of the other pups were going to help him.

"Fine," he turned to the ARW. "What would happen if…"

* * *

 **Before any suggestions hit, I want you to know, I already got Zuma's first one planned. Hit me with another one for later, if you like. So far, I had some fun writing these. I hope you guys like how I ended this one. It took some turns. I had originally thought of having a mugger attack them and Marshall holding him off while Skye went and got help, but then I scrapped it, thinking that gets complicated on its own.**

 **I would also like to thank BabyDJ2COOL and SharpDragonKlaw for allowing the use of their OCs. They won't be in immediately, since I will be trying to put them in a place that will fit instead of trying to shoehorn them in just anywhere.**


	4. Female Zuma

**This is the first one I'm writing that comes from my own head. I might stop doing that for a while. It felt weirder writing this one.**

 **In other news, I got my first hater review. I've never had one before. It makes me much happier than it should. From silverwisp1: "Bad story. AU is overrated." Eye opener, that one is. It leaves it so broad and destructive, everyone wants to listen to it immediately.**

* * *

"ARW," Zuma announced, "what would happen if I was born a giwl?" Ryder pulled the lever, knowing this was the question Marshall made Zuma ask. The pups were unsure what they were about to witness. Given the nature of the question, it could either be hilarious, or disturbing.

"What gave you this idea, Marshall?" Chase asked, finding it strange for his friend to have thought about this ahead of time.

"It was when he said, 'It's the little things like that that girls like,' before." Marshall answered. "It triggered the idea 'What if Zuma was a girl?' in my head,"

"This probably won't be that bad," Skye said, believing that the reality they were going to witness couldn't be too different. The ARW finished calibrating and showed an image of six little pups eating out of three food bowls. Confused as to what they saw, the team looked closer. Upon closer inspection, it was easy to see that the little pups were in front of the lookout and some of the pups looked to be Labradors. Some of the pups were a dark grey and some of them had pointed ears.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Zuma said.

"It's probably not all that bad," Rocky said, trying to reassure his friend.

* * *

 _The pups were sharing their food bowls which were still too large to finish on their own. One of them, a female Labrador with a brown coat and grey paws, looked up from her food toward a brown tail wagging in Zuma's pup house._

" _Mommy, aren't you going to eat?" she called out._

" _In a minute, Aiyana," a grown female pup said from inside. "I'm trying to pack up some of your father's junk. He's such a slob, sometimes," Aiyana giggled in response, thinking about all the stuff that was laying around the house. She went back to the bowl that she shared with her sister, who was starting to get full._

* * *

"Oh, come on!" Zuma exclaimed. "How does being a giwl fix my speech impediment?"

"It might be your Adam's apple," Chase said. "We could get it surgically removed."

"No way," Zuma answered quickly, before asking Rocky. "Whewe's the Adam's apple?"

"It's that bulge on your throat below your jaw," he answered. Zuma felt around under his beck and felt it. Marshall added on.

"It's also unlikely to cause any speech problems," he said matter-of-factly. "Although if you want to be sure, I'll do the surgery myself."

"I'll pass," Zuma said.

"Moving on," Ryder interrupted. "Rocky, do you notice something familiar about the little pups?" Rocky had thought they looked familiar. He just couldn't remember where from.

* * *

" _You know he'd get mad if you called it junk," another pup, male with all grey fur had said._

" _That's because he loves hoarding, Gear," Zuma countered._

" _I think he'd prefer the term stockpiling," a familiar voice said from the other side of the house. Zuma peaked her head out from her house and looked to where the voice came from and saw…_

* * *

"Rocky?!" came the shouts of nearly every pup present. Zuma, however, did not. He was vomiting into a trash can. Once he was done, Rocky pushed him to the side and puked into the trash can as well. Marshall started laughing in the meantime. Once they were both done and sitting down again, Marshall spoke.

"It's not that bad," Marshall said, slightly provoking the two pups.

"Imagine the idea of having pups with your best friend," Rocky said, holding his mouth shut.

"Namely, Chase," Zuma added. Marshall and Chase glanced at each other, and looked back at Rocky.

"Which one of us is the female?" Marshall asked.

"Does it matter?!" Rocky asked incredulously.

"Well you told me to imagine it, so I need to know which one of us I'm imagining." Marshall said.

"It could go different ways depending on who's which," Chase agreed. Rubble, Skye, and Everest smiled. It was clear that they were trolling the pair, who just decided to watch the ARW in silence after that.

* * *

 _Multiple shouts of "Dad!" were heard. Suddenly, six pups rushed and tackled the grey mixed-breed in front of them._

" _Children!" he shouted as soon as he hit the ground. All six pups were holding Rocky down, effectively keeping him from moving. Their father laughed, having fun with his offspring. Having been on the ground for long enough, he waved his pups off of him. "Good ambush." he complimented. Lowering his head, he spoke in a whisper. "Have you showed it to Uncle Marshall yet?" The pups shook their heads, giggling at the thought of surprising their uncle with their stealth skills. "You should show him. He always brags about moving quieter than a mouse. Show him what real stealth is," The half-Labradors giggled, knowing it would be fun, before sneaking off to find a Dalmatian. Rocky shook his head, knowing full well that they couldn't catch him off guard, but he'd probably let them._

" _It's a good thing you're back," Zuma said, wrapping her paws around his neck, nuzzling him in the process. "Now you can help me pack," Rocky smiled, happy to be together with his girlfriend after a long mission. He walked into the pup house after his mate, knowing there was a lot of stuff in there._

" _I still can't believe we're moving out." Rocky said, taping some old broom handles together to more easily keep track of them. "We've been living in these pup houses for so long, it's hard to consider what life will be like without being in them all the time,"_

* * *

"Wait, we'we moving out?" Zuma asked, disbelieving.

"Are we leaving the PAW Patrol?" Rocky asked, uncertain of what he was watching. All the pups were starting to wonder if they'd be doing the same if they had pups. Would the team be put before their pups? Would the pups come before the team? It's hard to imagine what happens next at that stage.

* * *

" _Well it's kind of weird for two grown pups and their six pups to live in two small houses anyway," Zuma said, recounting the situation._

" _I know," Rocky said, not trying to sound doubtful. "and I am looking forward to finally living under one roof with you and our kids, but it's hard to let go of it still,"_

" _It's not like you're getting rid of it." Zuma said. "It'll still be parked in front of the lookout, right next to us," Rocky nodded, still packing up his recycled and reusable items._

" _It is nice of Ryder and Rubble to help us build a house right here next to the lookout," Rocky added. "I don't think we could handle six pups on our own_ and _keep up our responsibilities to the PAW Patrol anywhere else."_

* * *

"Okay, we're _not_ leaving," Rocky said. "We're just getting out of the pup houses."

"Ouw pups awe kind of big," Zuma said. He was trying his best to act casual about the pups on the TV, but it still felt weird. "How old do you think they awe? Why did we take so long to move?"

"Building a house can't be done overnight," Rubble said. "It takes a few days just to draw up plans if you want it done completely right," Rubble thought about what he just said. "That rhymes. It can't be done overnight, if you want it done right,"

"That's why he's our construction pup," Chase claimed, knowing Rubble was right.

"And I'd say they're probably a year to a year-and-a-half," Everest answered.

* * *

" _With so many uncles and aunts here, we could probably have one more," Zuma said, taping a box shut. Rocky stopped and looked at her, raising an eyebrow._

" _We both know we wouldn't stop at one," he stated. "And by_ we _, I do mean_ you _," Zuma laughed, knowing it's true._

" _Speaking of pups, do you think Chase and-," Zuma's question was interrupted by a lot of high pitched shouts from outside._

" _Uncle Riggs!" they had heard, making their ears perk up. Suddenly, a pup with light brown fur and pointed ears had ran into the door. "Mommy, daddy, Uncle Riggs is here!"_

" _It still amazes me how much space is in these houses," Zuma commented._

" _Yeah, they_ are _bigger on the inside," Rocky said, following their daughter, Ginger, to meet with her uncle. Once outside, they saw a big, grey pup, a couple years older than Rocky, playing with their six pups, keeping them from catching by either barely outrunning them, or smoothly jumping over their heads. Once he saw the couple in the corner of his eye, he turned his attention toward them._

" _Little Cousin!" he shouted, excited to see his family. Once he did, however, he was distracted for a moment, and five grey and brown blurs tackled him, knocking him off balance. Balancing on two paws, he tried to put himself back on all fours, but the sixth pup, Aqua, who was slightly shorter than the rest with her father's ears and mother's coloring, had joined them and provided that final push to knock their uncle on the ground. "Ah, taken down by pint-sizers again."_

* * *

"Your cousin is huge!" Rubble said, surprised. "He has to be twice my height, at least,"

"Yeah, he has some giant dog breeds on his father's side," Rocky said. "I've never been sure which ones."

"I'd bet he could bench press all seven of us," Everest said, looking at the pup on the TV.

"More likely, only four," Rocky corrected.

"Right, because bench pressing any four of us is a really small achievement." Chase snarked. Rocky rolled his eyes and back to the screen,"

* * *

" _And they'll do it each time, Big Cousin." Rocky stated, helping the big pup up. "They get bigger and bigger each time you're here."_

" _Yeah," Riggs admitted, looking at Rocky. He suddenly put a paw just hovering over Rocky's head. "yet you seem to never get any taller,"_

" _Well getting taller than you would be mean." Rocky countered, swatting the paw away, "I can't take away the only point you have over me."_

" _And brains are the only thing you have over me, Little Cousin," Zuma was only giggling at the banter. It usually ended up being the same five or six jokes told in different ways, yet it always entertained her._

" _Uncle Riggs," one of the male pups called. He had dark grey fur with brown paws, his ears like his fathers. He even had a spot on his eye, albeit the right eye instead of the left. "Are you going to take us on an adventure again like last time?"_

" _I wish I had time for another adventure like last time, Ratchet," he said sadly, "but I'm actually only passing through on my way to my new job." Rocky's ears perked up, having not heard of this before._

" _You got a new job?" Zuma asked, voicing Rocky's thoughts. Riggs nodded. "Where at?"_

" _I'm starting at a new wildlife conservation center in Brightside City." he informed the pair. "I was going to let you know, but then it would've ruined the surprise for when I stopped here,"_

" _What happened to the recycling center?" Rocky asked, knowing his cousin loved that job. By this point, the pups left to play on their own, knowing that the grown pups were talking._

" _It was a great job," Riggs admitted, rubbing his head, "but there were already dozens of volunteers all the time. The wildlife conservation center needs more help, so I applied for a position there," Rocky shook his head. As long as he's known him, his cousin could never stay rooted to one place for a long time._

" _I hope this place works out for you," Zuma said, cheering on her extended family. Rocky nodded his head in agreement. "So how long are you in town for?"_

" _I've gotta be at the new job by tomorrow afternoon," he answered. "so, if I leave early tomorrow, I could stay overnight," Rocky looked at a clock in the pup house._

" _That gives us about three hours today." he claimed, doing some quick math in his head. "Five if you stay up late."_

" _It's almost dinner time," Zuma stated. "Let's head to Mr. Porter's and get something to eat."_

" _Should we invite the team?" Rocky asked._

" _Why not?" Riggs said. Before any of them could move, however, the pup tags beeped._

" _PAW Patrol to the lookout!"_

" _Ryder needs us!" the two shouted._

" _Riggs, we might be deployed on a mission," Rocky stated. "while we're gone, would you take the kids to dinner?"_

" _No problem, Little Cousin," he said, saluting the shorter pups. Nodding, the couple ran into the lookout with the rest of the patrol._

* * *

 _(At the lookout)_

 _Skye, Marshall, and Chase were called to city hall to help Chickoletta down from the roof again. The others were asked to wait in reserve and to be ready. Rocky, Zuma, and Rubble were waiting in the lookout, Rubble napping on the ground floor, while the couple were in the lookout, laying on a couple beanbags._

" _Do you ever wonder how Chickoletta gets on the roof in the first place?" Zuma asked._

" _A couple of times." Rocky answered. "I sometimes picture she jumps on some shape of tree that has a branch just outside of a window and another one that acts as a ramp to the roof."_

" _But there aren't any trees like that around city hall," Zuma remarked._

" _Would a magic tree be that far outside of our realm of possibility?" Rocky countered. "We've seen a magic monkey mask once." Zuma giggled._

" _I thought you were a pup of science,"_

" _Magic is science that we do not yet understand. So, if I don't understand the science behind it, it's magic until proven otherwise. Besides, I still can't figure out how the moon can help merpups turn either of us into merpups as well."_

* * *

"I still say that was a shared hallucination!" Rocky stated. "Otherwise, they transmuted us using energy from the moon."

"Wocky, will you get over it?" Zuma complained. "It happened. To you. Why awe you so doubtful?"

"I'm a pup of science. I don't believe in magic."

"Right, only ghosts," Skye pointed out.

"One time and you're marked for life," Rocky complained.

* * *

" _Wait, you believe that happened now?" Rocky nodded._

" _Being with you has made me believe in magic," he said, making her blush. Not knowing what to say, she leaned in and kissed her mate. It was a short kiss, but the emotion wasn't dampened at all._

" _You still have the corniest lines," she snarked, pulling away._

" _Corny, maybe, but they still work on you,"_

" _Only for you," Zuma said, making Rocky smile._

" _Oh, really?" he said, slightly mischievous. "Marshall didn't need to use any on you?" Zuma rolled her eyes._

" _No, he has a couple of other assets that worked for him." Zuma countered. "Will you stop bringing it up? One Christmas party before we were even dating, and you bring it up every chance you get."_

" _You bring up the time I asked Skye out," Rocky remarked._

" _That happened only a week before we started dating. I'm still not a hundred percent sure I'm not the rebound girl." She looked away, smirking._

" _If you ever need reassurance, you could look at your paw from now on," Rocky stated. Zuma was confused until she turned around. Rocky had a little black box in his jaw, opened with a diamond anklet. "Zuma, will you marry me?" Zuma's eyes widened, unsure of what to say._

* * *

"Why would you bring up her hooking up with Marshall before proposing?" Chase asked.

"It doesn't seem like something I'd do," Rocky said, curious. Suddenly, the video was replaced with an image of Zuma.

" _You'we wight, it wasn't."_ the ARW said. _"However, it did happen, and I found it funny, so I edited this weality video, so it would be bwought up."_ All the pups looked at the image of Zuma in front of them.

"Assuming you're the ARW," Ryder said. "Are you going to stop videos to say something to us a lot?"

" _Only when thewe's something to say,"_ the image of Zuma left, cutting back to the scene.

"That's gonna be annoying," Everest said, with all the pups agreeing. Rocky thought about something else in his head for a moment.

"Assuming the time period in this is the same as here," he recalled, "That would mean me and Zuma had dated for two years."

"How do you know that?" Chase asked.

"It's been that long since I turned him down," Skye said. Chase perked his head up. However, this time he kept his jealousy in check.

"You're pretty picky when it comes to guys, huh?" he quipped. She smirked.

"Just waiting for the right pup," she said.

"Now quiet," Rocky said. "I wanna see what she says," While he wasn't comfortable with the idea of Zuma as a mate, he was able to separate himself and his best friend from the pair of the TV.

* * *

" _Of course, I will!" Zuma said calmly, although only barely containing her excitement. Smiling, Rocky slipped the anklet around her paw, carefully sized so it wouldn't fall off. Once it was on, that was all Zuma could take. She lunged at Rocky and planted a kiss directly on his lips, wrapping her front paws around him. Once she pulled back, she looked him in the eyes, feeling all the love for her boy… fiancé. Suddenly, the realization hit. "I'm engaged." She breathed, disbelievingly. Slipping out of her grasp, Rocky stood to his paws and guided her to the elevator, the shock not fully worn off yet. Once it did, however, excitement took over. "I'm engaged. We have to tell everybody!" Rocky continued to grin._

" _I'm on it," he affirmed. Once they reached the bottom of the lookout, the lights were off and the room was dark. "She said yes, everyone," The lights turned on and the entirety of the PAW Patrol was in the living room. Riggs and the kids were there as well._

" _Congratulations!" they all shouted at once. Clearly, they had been rehearsing. The room was decorated as a generic party. Still, it was nice to see that they cared enough to be there._

" _The rescue was a cover up," Rocky said. "They get called while I propose. In secret, they prepare down here,"_

" _There's also a rented pool set up outside," Ryder claimed. Hearing this, Zuma gasped and ran outside. Sure enough, there was a pool about four feet high and fifteen feet across in a circle. Without hesitation, she ran up a set of stairs that was prepared and jumped in. She loved swimming, no matter how shallow the water was. Before she rose back to the surface, there was another splash hitting the water. When she looked toward it, a grey head popped out of the water._

" _It's always great to see you swim," Zuma said, hugging Rocky. Two more blurs, one of brown and one of grey, jumped in. "Serena and Finn seem to agree." Serena, the light grey pup, having features that matched her mother rose above the water, nodding her head. Finn rose out, climbing on his dad's back. While his legs were a dark grey, the rest of his body was brown._

" _I'll nevew undewstand how you don't like watew, daddy," he said, jumping off his father, back into the water. Aiyana, Ratchet, and Ginger soon joined in, but Gear opted to stay out of the pool. Rocky noticed, and dismissed himself from the pool. Skye took his place, doing a backflip from the stairs into the pool._

" _Hey, Gear," Rocky said, walking up to his child while drying himself off as much as he could with a towel. "Feel like watching cartoons with the guys and me?" Gear's ears perked up and nodded rapidly. Riggs and the other guys followed him inside, turning on the TV to pre-recorded episodes of Apollo the Super Pup._

 _Skye and Zuma were sitting at the edge of the pool, talking about the events of today._

" _I can't believe you're engaged!" Skye exclaimed._

" _How do you think I feel?" Zuma responded, looking at the anklet on her front paw. She looked at the group of boys watching the TV. Ryder had joined them as well. "Speaking of which, do you think_ you'll _ever tie the knot with you-know-who?" Skye blushed, looking at the group of boys. They were all watching the TV, with the exception of Riggs, who was giving Rocky a playful noogie._

" _I don't know," she answered. "We just started dating-"_

" _A few months ago," Zuma interjected._

" _Yeah, but I never pictured marrying him." Skye said._

" _You're lying," Zuma accused. "You've pictured it for a lot longer than that,"_

" _Yeah," a voice came from behind the pool. They looked over the edge, and Everest was standing there. "you even told me that you hope to get married in the lookout."_

" _Hey, Everest," Zuma greeted, "jump in," Everest nodded and got into the water from the stairs._

" _What about you and-" Skye said to Everest, before she was cut off._

" _I'm thinking either the beach at sunset," she said, cutting off Skye's question. "Or make everyone dress in extra warm clothing so we can get married where we first met." Skye was surprised. Clearly her friend had thought this through._

" _Everest, you know I love you," Skye stated, "but if you get married in the arctic, there's no way I can be your bridesmaid,"_

" _That stinks, because if I know that pup well, then he'd love that idea much more," Zuma said._

* * *

"You really wouldn't come to my wedding if it was in the arctic?" Everest asked, hurt. Skye looked at her.

"No, I was probably kidding." she answered. "You've seen me play in the snow before."

"What I want to know is why I haven't heard any names at all," Chase said, frustrated. "They brought up my name and Everest's and Skye's but they have not mentioned who their with."

"Maybe the ARW is trolling us," Marshall guessed. That sounded ridiculous for a moment, but they wouldn't put it past the ARW.

* * *

 _Once the party was over, all the pups went to their houses. Riggs was headed toward the lookout to sleep, but Rocky stopped him._

" _I need you to take my kids and watch a movie with them," he said._

" _I don't know, Rocky," Riggs said uncertainly. "I still have a bit of a trip to make tomorrow and it's a little late._

" _It's code blue, crossed with a code yellow, Big Cousin," Rocky said, knowing that would work. Riggs' eyes widened, and he sighed._

* * *

"What does that mean?" Marshall asked, looking at Rocky. When he did, though, he saw Rocky standing by the trash can, looking green.

"Code blue means I need some privacy." Rocky answered. "Code yellow means there's a girl involved." It took the others a second before they put the two dots together.

* * *

" _Say no more, Little Cousin," he answered, "please, say no more." He came over to the pups, who were playing in the front. "Hey, before we go to sleep, your dad says it's alright for you to stay up late and watch a movie with me." The pups stopped and cheered, running in the lookout. Rocky turned to Zuma, who had a gleam in her eyes._

" _It's our engagement night," she said._

" _Our kids are distracted with their uncle," Rocky added, heading toward Zuma's pup house._

" _Whatever shall we do with the free time?" She followed him in and shut the door behind her._

* * *

The ARW turned off, signaling the end of the video.

"I am so glad it didn't show that," Zuma said, relieved.

"It could've been worse," Marshall said.

"Yeah, but it was weird, thinking that Zuma looks pretty as a girl," Rocky said before he could stop himself.

"What?" Zuma said, looking at his best friend. "You actually thought I was pwetty?"

"He wasn't the only one," Rubble said, defending Rocky.

"Objectively speaking, you were really cute on the screen," Chase admitted. Zuma looked between his friends, before burying his head in his paws.

"I'm not suwe how I feel about this," he said, keeping his head down.

"Anyway, it's my turn," Rubble said, walking up to the machine. "ARW, what would happen if…"

* * *

 **This idea was better in my head. However, I committed to it, so I wrote it. It's inspired by the fact that the Brazilian dub has Marshall and Zuma as females. I considered having both of them, but I scrapped that idea. This story had a couple major plot changes. I almost had Riggs and four of the kids get lost in a cave. And almost made Marshall trick Zuma into puking on his own pup house. I never really know where these stories are headed until I'm writing the twist. As in, the proposal popped into my head while I was writing it. Not more than thirty words before.**

 **Anyway, I would like to thank SharpDragonKlaw for the use of his OC, Riggs. Please tell me if I had him out of character or misrepresented him at all.**


	5. PAW Patrol Z

**So, after giving it some thought, I think I'll put a temporary ban on any shipping suggestions for a while. I've done two romance chapters in a row, so I'm cutting them out. I might have it in some chapters, but it won't be the main focus. Anyway, also I figured I should mention that after the first round, (this mean once all the pups and Ryder have asked one question) I would open up requests for sequels or spinoffs to previous chapters (still would need a suggestion for the plot) or, if I have an idea, a chapter focusing on reality prime.**

 **Keep in mind, I have Reality Prime interrupting a lot. When that happens, the ARW stops the feed so that they can communicate, like a sound activated pause.**

 **Now, to more current events, I'd like to thank SharpDragonKlaw for the suggestion for this chapter. I can tell, before I even write it, this will be a fun one. I plan to use extra OCs for this chapter, but almost all of the background stories won't matter. (If imagery for the arena is in need, imagine the stadium from Dragon Ball.**

* * *

"ARW," Rubble began, "what would happen if the PAW Patrol were the main characters of a Japanese anime show?" Ryder, eyebrow raised, flipped the switch, not entirely sure what to think of the question.

"What made you think of this one, Rubble?" Marshall asked, actually excited for what will show up on screen.

"It came to me as I was standing up." He answered. "I actually didn't have any ready."

"Makes sense." Skye commented. "Who could picture us as cartoon characters?"

"Who said anything about cartoons?" Everest asked, slightly snarky. "This is anime we're talking about."

"Same thing," Chase replied. All the other members of the team looked at the two incredulously.

"Anime and cartoons are _not_ the same thing," Rocky said. "While some can be considered silly and weird, there's many more serious ones. You can look up a list of shows no one will ever tell me are for kids."

"Maybe, but we have a list of cartoons like that in our country too," Chase said.

"Shush, evewyone," Zuma said, "it's stawting." They all looked at the screen, waiting in anticipation.

" _Last time on PAW Patrol Z,"_ an announcer who sounded like Marshall.

"PAW Patrol Z?" Skye repeated, unsure of that title. "I don't understand the Z."

"Chances are, it would never be explained or used in the context of the show either, but it still sounds cool," Rocky remarked. The announcer continued. The ARW started showing small clips associated with what he was saying.

" _Sweetie challenged the PAW Patrol for one last fight for the fate of the world. The winner of the Barkingburg Shadow Tournament would decide it all."_

"We'd never bet the fate of the world on a contest." Chase complained.

"It's not like _every_ anime does it," Rocky defended. "Just the ones where the main villain enters, that way it's a slap to their ego. They issued the challenge, yet they still are beaten."

"There's more than the world riding on that tournament, Chase," Marshall declared. "Their pride is also on the line." Chase rolled his eyes.

"Well, even if it's another universe, it's still us." He said. "And I would never bet the world on a fighting tournament."

" _We accept your challenge, Sweetie,"_ ARW Chase said in a flashback. _"You couldn't beat us before, and you won't beat us this time either!"_ Chase just face-pawed while Marshall laughed.

"Real world or not," Rubble stated, "Chase will always have his arrogance."

"Arrogance?!" Chase shouted. "When have I ever been arrogant?!"

"How about that time you bet all your pup snacks on a volleyball game?" Ryder pointed out. Chase opened his mouth, but closed it again. After an awkward silence, he responded.

"I beat her twice before that, I thought I could do it again," he said, weakly defending it.

"I hustled you, Chase." Everest said, eating a pup snack from a bag on the floor. "I used your pride against you." The announcer continued.

" _After one month of preparation, the tournament has finally arrived, and the bracket's been decided. Who will win? I hope it's us,"_ ARW Marshall announced. The screen cut to a picture of the PAW Patrol standing in a group, with the title over it. " _Barkingburg Shadow Tournament Begins! The Preliminaries for the World!_

* * *

 _The PAW Patrol looked around the arena. The Barkingburg Shadow Tournament was a gathering of all the best fighters in the world. It was also unsanctioned and lawless. The tournament only had three rules: No firearms or similar ranged weapons, a contestant must stay in the ring at all times, and that they had to be standing and able to fight within ten seconds of hitting the ground._

" _Now that the qualifying rounds are out of the way," Chase said. "It looks like we're going to have some real challenges now,"_

" _These are the strongest there are," Marshall agreed, appearing a little awestruck, before a determined expression overtook his face, "let's beat them all,"_

" _I still can't believe I got knocked out in the qualifier matches," Skye complained._

" _Sorry, but it was either you or me," Everest apologized._

" _It might be for the best." Chase said. "We'll need someone to heal us in between matches and your healing magic is the best there is." Skye blushed at the compliment, before turning her nose up._

" _I'll only heal you, so you can beat that snob pup," she said. "It's not like I want to or anything."_

* * *

"Why am I so mean?" Skye asked, unsure what to say.

"Tsundere?" Marshall asked, not answering her question.

"Definitely tsundere," Everest said, confirming Marshall's question.

"What's tsundere?" Chase asked.

"It would take too long to explain," Zuma said, avoiding the answer.

* * *

" _I understand." Chase said, unaffected. "I feel like doing that is cheating, but we need every advantage we can get if we're to win this tournament." Skye blushed, and talked to Rubble._

" _Okay, big guy, you're up first." Skye said. "You're fighting a pup named Wisp. I watched her and she's really fast."_

" _Is that all?" he said, not feeling threatened. He took a couple treats from his bag on the side of his backpack. "With my expansion abilities, the match will be over in two minutes." He stepped into the ring before Skye could say anything else, chewing on his snack. She tried to stop him, but failed._

" _Welcome everyone, to the Barkingburg Shadow Tournament!" the referee shouted into his microphone. The crowd was extensive, stretching back several dozen yards. "In this corner, weighing in at 27 pounds, the pup feeling most at home underground, Wisp!" A border collie pup stepped out, wearing a helmet with a large light on the front. She took it off and through it to the side. She also wore a pup pack, assumably with some type of tricks in it. The announcer turned to gesture towards Rubble. "And in this corner, weighed at 45 pounds, we've got the bulldozer of the PAW Patrol, Rubble!" Some of the crowd looked a bit tense and the referee noticed. "The PAW Patrol as competitors, you know they'll take home the gold this year." Some of the crowd could relax. Being at an illegal fighting tournament, they could be on edge when they saw that a law enforcement team was among them._

" _Don't hold back, Wisp," Rubble warned, getting into a proper stance._

" _I would say the same to you, Bulldozer Rubble," Wisp responded, readying her fighting stance. The announcer looked between the two pups._

" _Ready… BEGIN!" he shouted. Rubble quickly attacked at Wisp, leaving little room for her to counterattack. She dodged left and right, keeping an inch away from each of Rubble's strikes. Eventually, she was approaching the edge of the ring. Noticing this, Rubble increase his speed, trying to overwhelm the collie. Before anything could connect, however, she jumped and vaulted over him mid punch. She tried to kick him out as well, but he braced himself, ready for it. Instead, she jumped off him, creating a sizable distance between the two. Wisp turned to face her opponent, who had been surprised._

" _You are fast," Rubble said, smirking in excitement, "but I'm strong." He stretched his legs out a little, getting ready. "And there's a reason they call me Bulldozer." Wisp smirked, also having fun in this fight._

" _Which will only matter if you can hit me." She taunted. Rubble pulled his front paw back, winding up for his attack._

" _Partial Expansion!" he kicked out his attack, and his paw, along with the rest of his limb, inflated. His paw was almost as wide as he was tall. With the expansion, he was easily able to reach Wisp, who jumped out, away from Rubble's paw. One hit and she'd be KO'd for sure._

* * *

"How'd you do that?!" Chase shouted.

"I guess in the anime world, I'm a ninja," Rubble responded, surprised as well.

"In what world is that a ninja technique?" Skye asked. Rubble was about to answer, but Rocky stopped him.

"Watch the fight first, then question it," he said, stopping the conversation.

* * *

 _Rubble's arm came back, returning to normal size. They circled the ring, carefully watching each other for sudden movements. Without warning, Wisp charged at Rubble, who tried to do a quick counterattack. At the last second, though, Wisp dodged right and barked, activating her pack. A grenade rolled out of a compartment on the side and onto her paw. Grinning, she threw it as hard as she could on the ground. Thinking it would explode, Rubble braced himself, squinting his eyes shut. What came wasn't an explosion, though. When he opened his eyes, he stil couldn't see. There was a heavy cloud of grey in front of his eyes. It didn't take him long to realize it was a smoke grenade that she threw on the ground. He was blind. Suddenly, he felt something hit his side, unsteadying him. It was a single punch, but it was still enough to knock him off his feet. Before he could react, more had hit him, too fast for a counter, putting him on the ground._

 _The smoke cleared, and Wisp was there, standing three feet in front of him. Grumbling, he rose to his feet. She may have hit him hard, but it wasn't enough to keep him down._

" _Good trick," he acknowledged, blinking a bit of dust away. "It won't work a second time."_

" _Maybe, maybe not," she said, vaguely. "I was hoping to save it for later, but it's not my_ only _trick."_

" _You'll need every one of them to beat me," Rubble declared. "Partial Expansion!" His back legs inflated, launching the bulldog into the air._

* * *

"Why does he keep calling out the name of his attack?" Chase asked, unsure of why someone would tell their opponent what they're doing.

"That's been one of my problems with anime, too," Rocky admitted. "The real problem I have is how the opponents never seem to move out of the way." Marshall nodded, agreeing with Rocky.

* * *

" _Giants' Stomp!" Rubble called out. He used his Partial Expansion technique again, stomping down at Wisp, who barely dodged. Before she could counter, though, Rubble had brought down another paw while that one was returning to normal, hounding her with attacks. Wisp, sensing the barrage, through four smoke bombs at the ground, creating cover. Rubble, not seeing where she was, attacked randomly, hoping the force would clear away some smoke. Wisp, keeping a cool head, tried to come up with a counterattack. She needed to stop the attack and she needed to take the offensive. Rubble didn't let up on his onslaught, but it was starting to drain him. He tried his best to hit her, no matter how tired he was getting. Suddenly, he felt something clench onto one of his paws. He knew exactly what was about to happen but couldn't stop it in time. The outstretched paw returned to normal and he finally relented his attack to try and shake off Wisp, who firmly wrapped her legs around his paw. She didn't let go, however, and when his leg returned to normal, pulling her towards him, she kicked him in the head with one of her free paws, sending him flying back. Wisp landed on her paws, while Rubble landed on his back, near the edge of the ring._

" _Almost had you there, Rubble," Wisp said, smiling. He got back to his feet, laughing. "What's so funny?"_

" _I haven't had this much fun fighting a stranger in a while." he admitted. He rubbed his jaw, where her back paw connected. "I should've seen that coming." He took a new stance, one that Wisp hadn't seen him use yet. "I made the mistake of underestimating you. I won't do it again."_

" _Good. The only reason I entered this tournament is to find the strongest there are. Then beat them all." She readied herself for whatever would come next. "Don't hold back." Rubble grinned, running forward at her. She pulled a smoke bomb, throwing it at the ground._

" _Full body expansion!" Rubble shouted, growing four times his normal size. He swept his front paw at the cloud of smoke, blowing it out of the way and swatting Wisp, who looked entirely shocked at the attack. She was thrown away, barely stopped at the edge of the ring. Shaking, she stood back up, a little frightened now. It was clear to her that if she were to be hit again, she would be unable to fight. Rubble, smirked, knowing that Wisp is understanding the situation. She threw more smoke bombs, creating a huge cloud that covered the field. Rubble fanned it away as much as he could. His head was barely over it, but he still couldn't see where Wisp was hiding. He felt something crawling on his leg and kicked it away. Wisp, not too damaged from the counter, landed on her paws. "The same tricks won't work a second time."_

" _Then I guess it's time to show the next trick!" she yelled, giving away her location. Rubble swept at the voice. Without warning, something hit the bottom of his paw. Yelping, he pulled back, holding it in the air. When the smoke cleared, he saw a large rock emerged from the ring. It was cone shaped, with the point being beveled. He looked for Wisp but didn't see her. Then she ran to him from behind the boulder. As she ran, three more popped out from the ground at a wave of her paw, each hitting him in succession. He fell backward, startled and injured from the sudden attack. He reverted to his normal size and looked up, seeing Wisp standing on one of the rocks. "I win." She declared proudly. Confused, Rubble looked around and noticed he was outside of the ring. Accepting his loss, he pulled himself back up, staying off his injured paw._

" _If I had taken you seriously from the beginning, I wouldn't have," he argued, smiling nonetheless. He bowed to his opponent, showing proper respect. Wisp bowed back, grinning. She held her side, though. Noticing this, he helped her stand, pulling her out of the ring._

" _Unbelievable folks!" the announcer yelled. "The mighty Bulldozer Rubble has been beaten by the underdog! Wil this be our only David vs Goliath scenario?" The crowd cheered, having enjoyed such an exciting fight._

* * *

"And I'm the arrogant one," Chase teased, having watched Rubble's equivalent lose because of his overconfidence.

"You are, but I never said I wasn't sometimes, too," Rubble admitted, laughing.

"The difference is that Rubble and I would admit it when it happens," Rocky said. "You and Zuma wouldn't, though,"

"Am I arwogant?" Zuma asked, not remembering a time that it happened.

"Well, there was the time that you lost in a surfing contest against Rubble because you didn't feel the need to keep practicing." Skye pointed out. "Rubble practiced for twice as long as you each day for a week straight, while you spent free time eating snacks. It made me wonder if the rest of us should switch roles with each other."

* * *

" _Skye," Chase said, gaining the smaller pup's attention, "when it comes time for me to fight her, I want you to heal her."_

" _What?!" she shouted, disbelieving what her leader asked of her._

" _I want to beat her at her best." He declared proudly. Skye rolled her eyes, feeling that she shouldn't have been surprised._

" _I would, but I'm not sure how much mana I have. I should only be using it when the team needs it so we can beat Sweetie."_

" _Fine. Then if I win this match without injury, you have to heal her." He said, betting that he would win unscathed._

" _Don't underestimate your opponent, Chase," she chastised. "That's why Rubble lost."_

" _I'm not Rubble, though," he said cockily. "I'll win."_

* * *

Chase was banging his head against the wall a little bit now while everyone else was laughing.

"I'd probably actually say that, too." He admitted.

"Wanting to heal your opponent before you fight _and_ saying you'll win without injury. That's a double threat." Everest said.

"To be fair, healing her isn't a matter of confidence." Chase said. "It's more of honor. I respect her skill, so I want to fight her at one hundred percent." Everest shrugged.

"Or that's your excuse," she said.

* * *

 _Chase stepped up to the arena, where the four rock structures still stood. He stood tall, waiting for his opponent. The announcer decided to introduce him. "Stepping into the ring, folks, we've got the leader of the PAW Patrol, weighing in at 44 pounds, standing proudly, Chase!" The crowd cheered, having recovered from their earlier nervousness of seeing Rubble. He gestured the other way but stopped when he realized that there wasn't anyone there yet. "Will our other contestant step into the ring, please?"_

" _Sorry, I'm coming!" a voice called from the other side. There was a pup, about a year and a half older than Chase. Any older and it would be hard to consider him a pup anymore. He was wearing what looked to be a suit of armor, bronze in color. Closely looking, though, it was easy to tell that it was actually an advanced cyber suit of some sort._

" _Hey, Rocky," Skye called, getting the mixed breed's attention, "isn't that…"_

" _It is," he said, surprised. "What's he doing here? And how did he make it through the qualifiers?"_

" _Who? Who is it?" Wisp asked, trying to get a clear look._

" _What are you doing here?" Marshall asked, not expecting to see the collie._

" _Who cawes?" Zuma asked, having hearts in his eyes. "If the lovely lady wants to talk to us, she can talk to us,"_

" _She's still your competition, Zuma," Skye reminded him._

" _I invited her to hang out with us," Rubble said. "So who is Chase fighting?"_

" _And finally joining us, better late than never, weighing in at 44 pounds, we have the prodigy cyber warrior, Scott!" The border collie waved at the crowd, trying to get some hype up._

" _Sorry I took so long, folks!" he yelled to the crowd. "This armor's heavy."_

" _You might want to take it off then, Scott," Chase said, happy to see an old friend. "You'll need some speed and you know that armor won't protect you from me."_

" _There's more to it than meets the eye," he claimed, being ready for a fight. "I just didn't want to waste any energy before fighting_ you _of all pups." Chase grinned at the compliment, getting his fighting stance ready. "By the way, how's my brother doing?"_

" _He's fighting in the fourth match." Chase answered. "After I win this match, we'll meet up with him."_

" _I guess that's never then," Scott said, having a kind smile on his face. "I don't intend to lose." The announcer looked between the two warriors, seeing they were ready._

" _Fighters, on my mark… BEGIN!" Chase didn't hesitate, running forward with incredible speed and attacked Scott in his exposed face. The armor, however, projected a force field around his head before contact was made._

" _Do you think I'd actually leave such an important part of me so undefended?" he asked, laughing. Taking advantage of the distraction, Chase made a second attack, this time hitting his chest and making a dent in it and pushing Scott back._

" _I guess not, but your armor isn't exactly that strong," he said, readying up. Scott stared him down carefully._

" _I beg to differ." He remarked. Suddenly, he lunged forward, the armor on his legs having strong pistons for speed. He punched Chase, using his armor's enhanced strength to his advantage. Chase could only barely dodge it, only having a split second to react. He shuffled back and attacked again when Scott left himself open again. He punched his side, which had considerably weaker plating, and punched a hole through it, before backing away again._

" _Fast, but not fast enough." Chase responded. "I'll chip away your armor, piece by piece." Scott was surprised. He didn't realize how weak his armor left him at his stomach, but instead of panicking, he chuckled._

" _Maybe you can beat this mode," he admitted. "but I'd like to see you beat this armor's mark II form." As soon as he said mark II, the armor on his body tore itself away from him. It broke into four different parts and transformed. Sensing something bad was going to happen, Chase tried to finish the fight fast and attack Scott. Before he could, however, one of the pieces of armor had finished transforming. It turned into a smaller quadruped, about three fourths Chase's height. It had pointy ears and sprung up to attack Chase. Chase blocked the attack and readied his own punch, but some stopped his paw. Looking up, another piece had transformed into a humanoid robot with two legs and arms. Chase wasn't fast enough to stop the oncoming punch and had the wind knocked out of him from the attack. While recovering, he saw that the other two pieces had finished transforming, resulting in one more pair of the same robots. When he got to his feet, he looked at Scott._

" _How are you controlling them?" he asked, dodging a couple of attacks from the robots._

" _I became a technopath during my travels." He answered. "I can now control technology with my mind." Chase dodged left and right. It was all he could do not to be overwhelmed by the androids, who wouldn't ease up on their barrage. Dodging a swipe from a humanoid, he rolled under his attack and hit his legs, knocking him over. Before he could attack anything, however, a dog tackled him, stopping the attack from happening. The other humanoid straightened his arms, pointing them at Chase. The hands slid off his wrist, revealing a cylinder. Chase tried to take cover, but the dogs held him down. The other humanoid stood up and mirrored the first one from the other side._

" _Hey, no firearms!" the announcer yelled._

" _They're not guns," Scott decreed. Both humanoids swung their arms down, letting something fall out of both cylinders. Catching the falling items before they hit the ground, the robots held them up. Chase could now see that they were holding retractable batons. Gulping, he struggled harder to get loose, but the dogs held him down too well. One of the humanoids raised a baton, getting ready to hit him. Chase, thinking quickly, put all his strength into a kick to change his position, putting one of the dogs on top just as the baton came down, hitting it in the leg. Having broken off its limb, Chase was able to kick it off now and got to his feet before the other humanoid could attack. Before the first one recovered, Chase tackled him, knocking one of the batons out of his hand. Chase picked it up in his mouth and hit the other dog in the head, breaking it off. The dog was still standing, however, startling Chase. "Machines can operate without heads."_

" _Doesn't make it any less creepy," Chase commented. He blocked another baton strike from the second humanoid and kicked his leg, knocking him down. He struck the headless dog as it tried to tackle him again, knocking off a leg. He grinned, still holding the baton. "I'll admit, your robo-minions had me overwhelmed for a bit there. I'll still break them all apart."_

" _Then I guess it's time to show you Mark III," Scott said. The robots moved closer together. Before they could, however, Scott was punched in the face. Startled, he backed up, holding his nose. Before he could recover, Chase hit him two more times, pushing him back both times. Chase wasn't wasting time again. He pushed his opponent to the ring. Still stunned, Scott couldn't defend himself when Chase had turned around. Winding up, he kicked Scott with enough force to send him out of the ring._

" _Next time, I'll tear your Mark III robot apart too," Chase said, challenging Scott._

" _Scott!" Rocky cried, running to the collie on the ground and hugging. "What do I keep telling you? Whenever you find yourself being punched repeatedly in the face, always remember to…"_

" _Dodge, I know, little brother," Scott said, getting up. "You know I would've won this match if it was against you."_

* * *

"You have a brother?" Rubble asked, surprised.

"Not that I'm aware of," Rocky replied. "but there's infinite dimensions in which we exist. One of them could have me being part wolf and having an older sister who's full wolf. Another one could've had Chase dating a thief and being influenced by her. Or Marshall being magic because he wished he was never born."

"Okay," Chase said, intrigued by the examples, "but is anyone else disappointed that we didn't get to see Mark III?"

"I am," Skye agreed. "I wanted to see what it can do."

"We probably will eventually." Rocky said. "For now, though, it's just hinted at." Chase groaned, still disappointed.

* * *

" _Possibly. Just because of your technopathy, though," Rocky said, confident in his abilities._

" _You mean with the mech_ I _designed?" he said snarkily, making Rocky blush._

" _You designed the original." He admitted. "I modified it dozens of times and repurposed it more than once."_

" _You can change the bulb on a flashlight, but does that mean it's a different flashlight?" Scott argued._

" _If you take a broom, then replace the handle, then replace the brush, then the handle, and so on and so forth, would it still be the same broom?" Rocky countered. The two argued like that for a few minutes longer while walking back to the audience._

" _So what made you enter the Shadow Tournament?" Chase asked, following him out._

" _I heard about the challenge Sweetie issued," Scott answered, "And I figured you might need backup, so I came down here with one of my suits."_

" _And now it's broken." Chase said, not too remorseful. "You could have given up while it still worked."_

" _It's about an hour of repairs." Scott said, waving off the damage to his technology as no big deal. "I have spare parts and plating in my suitcase."_

" _Suitcase?" Rubble asked, looking around. He didn't see a suitcase anywhere with Scott, before the male collie barked. On the horizon, he saw what seemed to be a missile heading towards the ring. He was about to panic, until he saw Scott put a paw towards it. The missile in question, transformed in midair, becoming a bulkier shape. The jet turned itself off and the projectile was falling towards them. When it approached the ground, a parachute opened up, slowing its descent. It landed directly in front of Scott's outreaching paw._

" _This is my suitcase." He said, barking again. The suitcase transformed into a car. "I'll be over here fixing my suit. Let me know when Rocky's match starts." He went to the back, leaving before Marshall realized it was his turn to fight. Excitedly, he ran into the ring, tripping as he approached his destination._

" _I'm good!" he said, rising to his feet. He looked at his opponent, who was already there._

" _Hi, I'm-" he said, trying to introduce himself before the strange Akita pup cut him off._

" _Marshall of the PAW Patrol." She finished, having a serious expression. "Second in command, second oldest, yet still arguably the most skilled in pup-fu. And the clumsiest, undoubtedly." Marshall was confused for a moment, unsure how she knew so much. "I've done my homework on the PAW Patrol."_

" _In this corner, we have the fiery stunt pup of the PAW Patrol. Weighing in at 44 pounds, the second-in-command of the PAW Patrol, Marshall!" he waved at the crowd, getting cheers here and there, none more so than from his friends in the front rows with the other combatants. "Fighting the esteemed martial artist, an upcoming bounty hunter from parts unknown, weighed at-"_

" _No one needs to know!" she shouted while blushing, stopping the announcer. "Just keep going."_

" _That sounds like something you would do, Skye," Everest commented._

" _Yeah," the small pup agreed. "It makes me kind of glad that I didn't make it in," Zuma didn't comment, only staring at the Akita pup in the ring with Marshall._

" _I know that giwl." He stated. "I can't wemember whewe, but I wemember seeing hew befowe."_

" _Didn't you date an Akita once?" Rocky asked reflexively. Confusion was all that hit Zuma, along with a slight headache. Skye hit Rocky on the head. Everest and Rubble were just as confused as Rocky. They'd never met such a pup before. Chase's eyes widened._

" _Skye, is that really…" he asked before Skye cut him off, nodding and shushing him._

" _Oookay, weight is a mystery, the Giant Toppler, Ariyana!"_

" _Ariyana," Marshall repeated. "That name sounds familiar to me."_

" _It's a common enough name." she took her stance, supporting a different fighting style. Marshall noticed it and took his own stance._

" _Tail-kwando?" Marshall asked, recognizing the stance._

" _You know your martial arts," she affirmed, turning her paw face up, waving at him to attack her. The referee looked between the two, recognizing that they were ready to fight._

" _Ready… BEGIN!" he shouted, backing away. Ariyana made the first move, starting off with a flurry of wild kicks toward Marshall. He backed away, slightly pushing the attacks away from him to avoid injury. Breaking pattern, she stopped her kicks and attacked with strong punches. Marshall, keeping his cool, pushed a punch aside, creating an opening to exploit. He didn't waste this opportunity and countered by punching Ariyana in the chest. Not ready for the attack, the force pushed her back. Before she could recover, Marshall flipped over her and swept her back legs from under her, knocking her down. Ariyana, not too fazed by the second attack, stood back to her feet. She kicked back at Marshall, who was still behind her. but the dally dodged around her, keeping just outside of her reach. It was easy to see the skill difference between the two. Marshall easily avoiding all her attacks and dishing out his own._

" _Marshall's got this one easily." Chase commented. "She's good, but Marshall turns into a different pup when he's fighting. She'll never hit him at this rate."_

" _You're wrong." Zuma disagreed, watching the fight carefully. "It looks like she's letting some of those hits make contact." Chase was going to disagree but looked at the match again. Some of the attacks she'd suffered were easily avoidable, yet she took the attacks full force._

" _You're right," Wisp said, having recovered enough to stand on her own. "Why would she do that?"_

 _Marshall had noticed this earlier than Chase had. He'd been prepared for counterattacks that never came, expecting punches faster than they were, and kicks stronger than she'd use, but he couldn't figure out why._

" _Are you taking this fight seriously?" he finally asked. "You could have hit me a lot already, but you're not."_

" _I thought you were a klutz," Ariyana said, not answering the question. "Yet you've effortlessly dodged all of my attacks_ and _figured out what I've been doing." She took a moment and stretched out all four of her legs and her back. "I guess I'll do this a little earlier than expected. She closed her eyes and planted her feet. "HAAAA!" Suddenly, a blue aura surrounded her, making Marshall feel uneasy. Her eyes opened. One of them turned red and the other gold. "My special ability: Revenge Counter!" She put her back left paw back and her front right paw forward. "Prepare yourself, Marshall," Without warning, she launched herself forward at incredible speeds, tackling Marshall in the process. He landed about twenty feet back, laying on his side. "The more of a beating I take ahead of time, the stronger I become when activating it." Marshall rose to his paws and spat out some blood from his mouth, having bit his cheek when flying. He looked at where she was standing before and noticed there were two craters where her paws had been. She must have used so much strength to push herself forward, she'd broken through the concrete._

* * *

"That is cool!" Chase exclaimed, praising the power given to Marshall's opponent. "She took a beating and gave it back twice as much."

"Are you rooting against me?" Marshall asked his best friend. "I rooted for you against Scott."

"I'm not rooting for or against you," Chase said. "I'm saying the powers are cool."

"I'll remember that in your fight against Wisp," Marshall said, acting as though he was hurt.

* * *

" _Okay, that's unexpected." Marshall commented. Ariyana jumped at him again, barely giving him time to react. He ducked low and dashed under her, barely avoiding her wrath. He kept away from her as much as he could, hoping she'd wear herself out, but it didn't seem to be the case. Instead, it seemed more that he was starting to reach his limits. She used a feint, pretending to aim for his head, but when he dodged, she circled him a little, getting to his side and kicking him easily. The kick propelled him again, where he only barely landed inside the ring. She was about to attack him again but stopped when she realized he wasn't standing up. He'd tried to get to his feet but couldn't stand._

" _1…2…3…" the referee started counting. Ariyana kept up her Revenge Counter abilities, just in case something happened._

"I've gotta do something fast!" _Marshall thought to himself. He thought about his options and only one proved useful._ "I guess it's my only choice. I call upon Kerberos. I need a little bit of your power from the Underworld!" _Suddenly, Marshall planted his paws on the ground, surprising Ariyana._

" _7…8…9…" the announcer stopped, as Marshall rose to all fours. "And he's back up, just in nick of time!"_

" _Do you think that you can still win?" Ariyana asked, readying for another tackle. Marshall turned towards Ariyana. His left eye now had a demonic slit in place of his pupil._

" _I guess we'll find out, won't we?" Marshall answered joyfully. She lunged forward, ready to knock Marshall out of the ring, but was taken aback as he countered, hitting her with an uppercut to the jaw and sending her back. She was in awe at the show of speed. She hadn't seen the punch coming in the slightest bit until she was right next to him. Growling, she stood back up and ran toward Marshall, who now had a red aura surrounding him. Anticipating his attack, she dodged his jab and tried for her own, to have it blocked and pushed back. Marshall took the opportunity and kicked her, once again sending her flying. Once she landed, she jumped back to standing and charged Marshall, who stood there. She punched him as hard as she could, but he didn't budge. It hit him directly in the face, but he didn't flinch in the slightest. It was almost like punching a statue. Sighing, Marshall flicked his paw upward, pushing her paw out of the way. Before she could react, he followed up with an uppercut to the gut, pulling Ariyana into the air. Before she returned to the ground, Marshall jump kicked her, sending her into one of the rocks still standing in the ring. Growling, she stood back up. If she hadn't been used to taking a lot of damage, she wouldn't be standing anymore._

" _Okay, I guess I can only win with the next level." She once again planted her paws. "HAAAA!" Her aura turned from blue to green, catching Marshall's attention. "Revenge Ender!" She lunged forward, new speeds that Marshall had perceived, but could only barely block. Ariyana, near Marshall now, smirked. "It triples the effects of Revenge Counter." She tried to push him back, as he was still at the edge of the ring, but he ducked under and away from the edge._

" _I see I'll have to power up some more as well." He balanced on his back paws and clapped his front ones together. "HAAAA!" His red aura intensified, growing bigger as he powered up._

* * *

"What's with the screaming?" Skye asked, trying to understand it.

"It makes the attacks stronger," Marshall answered.

"How?" Chase asked, starting to get into the show more.

"You know, I never thought about it," Rocky admitted. "It just happens. Sometimes rocks float based on the sheer power level."

"This is making less sense as it goes on," Skye said. "but it's fun to watch anyway."

* * *

 _Ariyana attacked, stopping him from powering up anymore than he already had. She tackled him, sending the both of them tumbling. Once they stopped, they both stood up, watching the other carefully. Ariyana lunged forward, Marshall blocking the attack and countering with his own. Ariyana blocked it and returned with her own, connecting with Marshall's shoulder. Marshall, shrugging off the blow, hit her in the left side of her head. The two traded blows, not relenting their assault. Finally, they separated, trying to catch their breath. Ariyana knew that if Marshall had powered up any farther, she would have lost a long time ago. Marshall, sensing the end of the fight, was ready to put all his strength to his next attack. The two charged at each other. Approaching impact, each drew back their paw, winding up their attacks, and punched the other in the head as hard as they could. The impact sent them each flying in opposite directions. Ariyana stood up and looked around. She sighed and noticed a crucial detail: She landed outside of the ring. Looking at Marshall, she noticed he was still inside, but just barely. He sat up, shaking his head._

" _I guess you win, Marshall," she said, admitting her defeat. "I'll win next time, though." He stood up, bowing to her._

" _Maybe so, but if we fight again, I'll know about Revenge Counter," he warned. "Thank you for the fight." He walked back to meet his friends, passing Rocky as he went to get ready for his match._

" _Good show, Mawshall," Zuma complimented, "but who was that pup? She looked so familiar."_

" _It probably doesn't matter," Chase said waving it off. "We've seen a lot of Akita's before. Maybe it's just in your head." He looked around. "Where'd Skye go?"_

 _Ariyana was walking to the other side of the audience, trying to avoid seeing the PAW Patrol. Her attempts were ephemeral, as she rounded a corner, she bumped into Skye._

" _Hi, Ariyana," she greeted awkwardly. "It's been a while."_

" _Hi, Skye," she returned. "It's good to see you," The two looked in each other's eyes for a moment, the silence only interrupted by the crowd. "So, how's Zuma been?"_

" _Better since the accident," Skye answered. "His memory is probably permanent, though." A long time ago, Zuma dated Ariyana for a few weeks. It was a short time, but it was some of her best memories. She'd gotten to know Skye a little bit, before a date had ended with Zuma being hit by a car. He had been in a coma and lost over two months of his memory. The doctors said that if he remembers, it could possibly rip apart his mind, resulting in another coma. So his team hid the truth from him._

" _Then it's best he doesn't talk to me again." She said sadly. "One more meeting could hurt him." She went to her spot in the audience. "It was nice seeing you again, Skye,"_

" _Likewise, Ariyana," she agreed, a tear in her eye._

 _Rubble went to where Scott was, who had almost finished with his armor. "Rocky's up," he said, getting Scott's attention. He locked everything in his suitcase and followed Rubble when he noticed something._

" _You're still limping," he pointed out. Rubble looked down at his sore paw. "Why hasn't Skye healed you yet?"_

" _I told her not to," he said. "I'm out of the competition. I don't need to fight anyone else yet."_

" _Maybe so, but you are entitled not to be in pain all day." Scott said, wanting Rubble to get better._

" _It's just sore. It'll go away in an hour." Scott had his doubts but didn't argue with the younger pup._

" _Who's Rocky fighting?" he asked, changing the subject._

" _A Rottweiler named Blitz," Rubble replied, "As far as I've seen, he tends to use his paws to fight, but there's no telling what's in his pack."_

" _That could be dangerous." Scott said, a little worried for his brother. "Why would he bring a pup pack with him if he never uses it?" Rubble and Scott met up with the rest, lined up and ready to watch the battle with everyone else. Rocky wasn't present yet, but his opponent was._

" _Ready for an exciting match, we've got the most famous pit bull of the underworld, the only pup who hunts the grim reaper himself, weighing in at 30 pounds, Blitz!" A rottweiler was standing in the ring, looking at the crowd. He had a goofy grin across his face._

"He's _the Grim Hunter?" Chase commented in confusion. Blitz balanced on his back paws, waving at the crowd with both paws before doing a back flip, landing on his paws. "Not how I pictured him,"_

" _You've heawd of him, Chase?" Zuma asked._

" _A few stories, but I thought they were rumors." He answered. "He's a bounty hunter, who seeks out the most dangerous targets. One stands out to me, though. A domestic terrorist group was stationed in a secret lair in the northside of Australia. They'd been nearly impossible to track, much less apprehend because of their caution. Even if they'd ever been found, they were hundreds and could deal with small threats easily. Then one day, without warning, the entire group was defeated. Half their numbers were killed, while the other half had either fled or surrendered. The ones who survived, told the same story. One pup, one_ demon, _had walked into their base and destroyed them singlepawed. And he did it with a smile on his face." Blitz jumped up, doing a backflip again. His cheerful expression never leaving. "I'm starting to think the legends were embellished. Just a little."_

" _Looks can be deceiving," Marshall reminded his leader. Chase smiled, knowing that Marshall was referring to himself._

" _Where's my opponent?" Blitz called out. "Is the mech engineer of the PAW Patrol too scared to face me?" Without warning, something huge fell out of the sky, crashing into the ring behind him. Blitz turned around, seeing a huge robotic dog standing behind him. It was predominantly silver colored, with blue trim. The eyes were a solid blue visor and stood four times Blitz's height._

" _No, just left my equipment outside," came Rocky's voice from the robot._

" _There better not be any guns in there," the referee warned. He waited for a response from Rocky. After a few seconds, Rocky's voice came again._

" _Okay, ranged weapon systems are disabled." He called. "If I use one, I won't fight the disqualification."_

" _It wouldn't matter." Blitz said, grinning a cheerful grin. He looked more like he was going to get pizza with a friend than about to fight. "That tin can won't protect you, guns or not."_

" _Did you just call Mecha-pup a tin can?!" Rocky shouted, a nerve appearing to be struck. Blitz nodded, not showing a hint of change in his emotions. The mech lifted one of his legs, aiming a strike at Blitz._

" _Wait until I start the match!" the referee warned. Rocky paused, waiting for the word. "Ready… BEGIN!" As soon as the word was spoken, Mecha-pup brought his paw down, slamming into the spot Blitz had been standing and creating a small cloud of dust._

" _Well that was melodramatic." His voice came, clearly unharmed. "I made fun of your bolt-bucket and you try and fail at killing me." The dust cleared, and he'd stood slightly forward from Mecha-pup at the front of his paw. "You'll have to do better than that."_

" _Arf! Magma Claws!" Rocky called. On the word, Mecha-pup's paws each spawned three claws. They were made of steel, each glowing red hot. He made a swipe at Blitz, who dodged with ease. Mecha-pup swiped its claws a few more times, but the Rottweiler moved by them, almost like he was dancing. Rocky swiped his claws down, aimed directly at Blitz. The Rottweiler didn't move this time, but instead barked._

" _Arf! Scythe!" A scythe blade, about two feet long, protruded from his pup pack and positioned itself above him, blocking the attack. Blitz wasn't struggling in the slightest. He held the weight of the mech's attack with only one scythe. The scythe's staff was firmly placed on the ground, diverting the force from Blitz._

* * *

"Scythes?" Chase asked. "Those are pretty impractical weapons."

"That's true," Marshall agreed, "but consider this. The more impractical a weapon, the harder it is to fight someone who's mastered it."

"What makes them impractical?" Skye asked.

"It's mainly the way they're designed." Rocky answered. "If used like a bō staff, they're difficult to use because of how imbalanced they are. Is used like an axe, they risk getting stuck in their target. The blade is most effective for slicing rather than stabbing, so you'd have to pull back to get the most force, which puts you really close to your enemy, even though a scythe is a longer range weapon."

"So why would anyone use them?" Skye asked, confused.

"Because they're really cool and super intimidating," Everest answered.

* * *

 _His expression not changing, Blitz's scythe pushed up, repelling the mech. Rocky, startled, fell back without recovering, hitting one of the rock formations in the ring. The weight of Mecha-pup crumbled the rock, turning it into a pile of boulders._

" _In order to hunt the Grim Reaper, one must use his weapons." He said. "Scythes are my specialty and this pup pack is loaded with them." For a while, Mecha-pup laid there. Scott began to think that the circuits were damaged and it was out of commission, but after a moment, it finally moved._

" _You might hunt the Grim Reaper," Rocky said from Mecha-pup, "but he doesn't have my skills!" Mecha-pup lunged forward and slammed down his paws repeatedly, creating a small tremor. Blitz planted his paws, keeping his balance, but it was proving to be too much._

" _Arf! Dual scythes!" An extra scythe emerged from his pack and planted it itself into the ground, ensuring that he'll remain standing. Once it was obvious that it wasn't working, Mecha-pup stopped his small earthquake and charged forward, slicing at Blitz with both sets of claws. Blitz blocked both and deflected Mecha-pup's left claw, shuffling forward underneath Mecha-pup before dropping his other defense. Having the opportunity, he used his scythe to slice at the underbelly of the mech. Surprising Rocky, it proved effective, as there were now large slices in the armor. Thinking quickly, Rocky had Mecha-pup drop his stance, doing a belly flop on Blitz, who was still under him. Blitz, with only a half second to react, moved out of the way, but the force knocked him off his legs and on his side. "Arf! Chain scythes!" Two more scythes launched from the pack, this time with chains attached. They sent themselves to the other side of Mecha-pup and lodged themselves into the ground. Blitz tightened them and attached them to the ground, keeping Mecha-pup from moving immediately. He took this opportunity and hacked at his front leg, cutting through the plating with ease. Before he could finish, however, Mecha-pup broke free of his bonds. Blitz backed up, ready for another attack, but nothing happened. He looked closely and noticed the leg he was cutting at was hanging limply from the rest._

" _My leg!" Rocky shouted, realizing the mech's leg wasn't moving. Taking his opportunity, Blitz finished cutting off the leg, severed wires sparking from each side._

" _Arf! Pincer scythes!" Yet another scythe emerged from his pack. This time, using all three, he picked up the severed robot leg. "This is the end!" He jumped forward and buried the claws into the mech's head. It stood there for a moment, before crumpling down. He took his opportunity and cut through the torso, to where the cockpit of the mech is. "Let's make this a nice and easy ringout, eh?"_

* * *

"He took down Mecha-pup easily." Marshall observed, awestruck.

"And he did it all with an everlasting smile," Chase added. "I'm starting to believe the legends."

"That's a scary pup," Rubble said, shivering. The others nodded.

* * *

 _Blitz had finally reached the cockpit and tore it open. What he found, however, shocked him: it was empty._

" _I agree. A nice and easy ringout," Rocky's voice said from behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt something touch his pup pack and the next thing he knew, electricity was pulsing through him, several watts of it. Turning around, he saw Rocky standing there, wearing a large helmet and a bracer on each leg._

" _Arf! Pincer scythes!" Blitz shouted, but nothing happened. He looked at his pack and saw the scythes he had out, dangling uselessly._

" _That's for my mech," Rocky stated. "A simple EMP patch and your scythes are useless." Blitz's expression had finally changed. He no longer had a smile on his face. Only shock and rage was_

" _Why weren't you in there?" he demanded. "You're supposed to be in the ring at all times during the fight!"_

" _I have been." It was Rocky's turn to have an everlasting smile. "I jumped in on Mecha-pup, remember? I just slipped out as well and turned on remote piloting."_

" _When?!" Rocky nodded his head toward the pile of rocks. The one that Blitz had sent him into beforehand. And it hit him._

" _After I crashed, I realized the mech wouldn't be effective enough, so I got out and his under some of the rocks."_

" _I still beat your mech," Blitz said angrily. "Without it, you're nothing!" He lunged toward Rocky, who dodged effortlessly._

" _Yes, you beat my mech." Rocky admitted. "It was only a prototype model, but even then, it's a powerful weapon. A very useful tool in fighting. In the end, though, that's all it is. A tool." Rocky readied himself in an attack position. "I'm still the one fighting. And these bracers are all I need to beat you now." Rocky charged forward and punched the bounty hunter. On impact, part of the bracer thrust itself forward, hitting Blitz with immense force. The power shot him back, near the edge of the ring. "These are another tool. I call them impact gauntlets." Before Blitz could recover, Rocky had already tackled him, sending him out of the ring. "And don't worry about your scythes. They'll be working in an hour." The announcer, having a big grin on his face, walked up to Rocky._

" _Ladies and gentlemen, it just occurred to me that I never introduced our winner." He pointed his paw at Rocky. "The mech-technician of the PAW Patrol, but tough even without his robots, wighed in at 34 pounds, but with an extra three thousand wherever he goes, give it up for Rocky!" The crows cheered for the mech-pilot, having won a victory that seemed impossible._

* * *

"Rocky, that was amazing!" Skye praised.

"It wasn't anything special," he said, blushing. He turned toward Ryder. "Can I build something like that mech? Please?"

"Maybe someday," Ryder said. "We should draw up the designs for it first."

"You know what I like to call that victory, Marshall?" Rubble said.

"Shocking?" Marshall guessed.

"No," Rubble deadpanned. "Well-earned. What you said was cheesy." This made Marshall, Zuma, Rocky, and Everest laugh, while Chase and Skye were confused.

* * *

" _Rocky, way to go!" Marshall cheered. He looked over to the arena where Mecha-pup was. "Too bad your mech is trashed, though."_

" _Forget about it," Rocky said. "I've got two more ready and this one was just the prototype of those two," Skye examined the pup, looking for any injuries._

" _So far, you're the only one to walk out of their fight without any injuries." Skye remarked, looking at Rubble, Chase, Marshall, and Wisp. "Now if only Everest and Zuma will do the same." They all laughed, knowing there's almost no chance of that happening._

" _Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be taking a one-hour intermission before matches continue." The announcer decreed. "You may use this time to stretch your legs or fetch snacks if you please."_

" _Come on, guys," Rubble beckoned. "Let's get some food. I'm starving." The others laughed, knowing this would be something Rubble would say. From the far corners of the audience, a white Highland Terrier was watching the fights._

" _Shame Blitz lost," she commented fiddling with a sapphire necklace. "He would have been a nice addition to my collection." She stood up, stretching her legs. "No matter. I'll still succeed in the end."_

" _The first matches of the tournament have taken place, but there's still a long way to go,"_ a voice that sounded like Marshall asked. " _What could Sweetie be planning with the tournament? Will Everest and Zuma make it to the next round? And who is Wisp? Find out next time on PAW Patrol Z,"_

* * *

"A cliffhangew?!" Zuma complained. "Oh, come on!" An image of Rubble appeared on the screen.

" _If you'd like to see more, just ask later on,"_ ARW Rubble said. _"It's a pretty long tournament, and cliffhangers are an essential part of anime,"_

"As long as you don't try to fool us with any filler arcs." Marshall said. "We want to know how the tournament ends." ARW Rubble nodded and his picture disappeared. "All the same, let's take a break from this one. It'll wear itself out fast."

"Yeah, besides, I had something I wanted to ask," Chase said. "I feel bad that Sweetie's always our enemy."

"But she's always trying to become queen," Marshall said.

"She took the royal throne and tried to dethrone Mandy." Rocky pointed out.

"She scared us with robots pretending to be ghosts," Rubble added.

"And she took the crown and framed _you_ for it," Skye finished.

"Yeah, but I've talked to her a bit before that." Chase said. "She's actually pretty nice sometimes. And she's skilled, too. She took the crown from right under my nose. If she used those skills to do good, could you imagine what she could do?"

"What are you getting at, Chase?" Marshall asked. Chase took a deep breath and exhaled.

"ARW," he turned towards the machine. "What would happen if Sweetie became a member of the PAW Patrol?" Ryder smiled and flipped the switch.

* * *

 **Okay, so this went** _ **way**_ **longer than I expected it to. It's over twice as long as I usually have these chapters. Anyway, I would like to thank GriffTalon, Chimchang14, and BabyDJ2COOL for the use of the OCs Wisp, Scott, and Ariyana respectively. Please tell me if anything about the way I've portrayed them displeases you. If anyone can point out all the references/easter eggs I put in... Good job. I put a small chunk in here and I don't even remember most of them.**

 **I chose to put the next question in this chapter because I felt as though it would be obvious where Chase was leading to. Also, I only didn't write the questions ahead of time since I didn't have any ideas for the first chapter yet. I'm four chapters in now and I've got a lot of suggestions to bank on. Feel free to suggest more, though. I'm up for a challenging question. Or an amusing one. I can handle either one.**

 **Also, since this chapter was much longer than my last ones, please let me know if you spot any huge errors for me to fix. This includes inconsistencies or grammatical errors.**


	6. Sweetie's Mission PAW

**I've been trying to work on Cops & Robbers, but while my brain works some ideas for later events, I've got nothing for the events of the current chapter. I hate that about my mind sometimes. Anyway, this will probably be a long one. I'm not sure how it will go, but that's the fun part. I've got a setup, a general direction, and a few ideas here and there. Let's see what happens.**

 **This idea comes from Mattwurm99. Thank you for inspiration.**

* * *

"What would happen if Sweetie became a member of the PAW Patrol?" Chase requested of the machine. Ryder flipped the switch, slightly zealous to find out what would happen.

"Chase, are you sure about this?" Rubble asked. "Sweetie's one of our enemies."

"Do we not destroy our enemies when we make them our friends?" Ryder questioned in response. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen? This is just a possible what-if scenario."

"Yeah, dude." Zuma agreed. "And I want to see what happens. This thing is awesome!" The ARW finished calibrating the request and showed an image of the lookout, with Marshall running in his EMT gear.

* * *

 _Marshall ran through the lookout doors and into the elevator, stumbling as he did. "Even with no one around, I still trip coming in here." The elevator went up to the lookout, where Chase, Rubble, and Ryder were waiting. He got to his feet and joined them. "I came as soon as I could. What happened?"_

" _We don't know." Chase said, walking over to a table. "She just fell at the lookout doors like that." On the table, laid a white terrier pup known as Sweetie. On three separate occasions, she was known to have been a worthy adversary of the PAW Patrol in Barkingburg. She was still the royal pup, however, which begs the question: Why is she in Adventure Bay? Marshall began his work. He used his X-ray to check her bones but didn't find any. He then used the thermometer and found that her temperature was quite low. He threw a blanket over her and checked her pulse, which was normal. Noting her wet fur, he grabbed a towel and dried off the fur that he could. She also had some straight cuts on her left foreleg._

" _Judging by the bags under her eyes, I'd say she just passed out from exhaustion." He said, taking off his hat. "She's probably dehydrated too. Give her a couple hours and she'll wake up." He pulled off his EMT pack and replaced it with his fire-pup pack. "Or I could splash her with water. It would be just as effective as time. And it would rehydrate her."_

" _Marshall, take this seriously." Ryder said, chastising the Dalmatian. Marshall whimpered, putting down his pup pack._

" _Well, I'd say she came from up river. Her fur's really wet, so she probably drifted down from Barkingburg."_

" _That's… a two-hour drive. I can only imagine how long she'd drift down here." Ryder said, trying to determine the time she'd taken._

" _About a day," a voice came. The three PAW Patrol members turned around, seeing that Sweetie woke up. Marshall, still an EMT, ran to the nearby water fountain, getting some water. "I've been floating here on a small raft for a day."_

" _Why were you floating on a raft?" Chase asked. By this point,_

" _I've been chased out of Barkingburg."_

" _The princess finally decided you're not worth the trouble?" Rubble joked, earning glares from Ryder and Chase. Sweetie, however, didn't show the slightest bit of reaction._

" _Not the princess," she answered. "My teacher."_

" _Your teacher?" Chase asked, confused._

" _The dog who taught me everything I know about thievery." She clarified. "He's a master of the trade, but he's never been able to steal from the castle. When I became the royal pup, he began training me. He taught me pup-fu so that I could move quietly. He taught me the arts of distraction, deception, manipulation, everything I need to know to take over Barkingburg from the inside."_

" _Why is this the first we've heard of it?" Ryder asked, skeptical._

" _He's considered a master for a reason." Sweetie said. "Every theft he's ever performed, he never leaves any evidence. And I'd never turn him in." She winced, sitting down to drink the water that Marshall brought to her. "However, when I had an argument with the princess, he found me useless and attacked me."_

" _That explains these cuts on your leg." Marshall commented, pointing to three slash wounds on her leg._

" _I managed to get away and lose him in the river. Now, he's launching his next plan to take the crown." As she was talking, Ryder got a beep on his pup pad. He answered the call to find that the princess was calling him._

" _Ryder! I have awful news." She said, sounding extremely worried._

" _Is it that Sweetie's missing and you have no idea where to find her?" he asked casually. The princess blinked, surprised by Ryder's omniscience._

" _Yes, but how did you know that?" Ryder turned his pup pad to Sweetie, who's wounds were being treated by Marshall._

" _Hello, princess." She said meakly. "I'm sorry about earlier."_

" _Forget that, what happened to you?" Ryder was about to explain what Sweetie told him, but she spoke faster._

" _After the disagreement, I accidentally fell in the river and floated on a big log to Adventure Bay, where the PAW Patrol saved me." Ryder blinked, not disagreeing with what Sweetie had said, but wanted to explain the details._

" _That's horrible!" the princess lamented. She turned towards Ryder. "I'm sorry to burden you, but would you please bring Sweetie back to Barkingburg?"_

" _It's no problem," Ryder answered slowly. "I'll bring her over in a little bit."_

" _Thank you so much, Ryder." The princess said. "I'll see you in a little bit." The call ended and the PAW Patrol members turned to Sweetie._

" _Why didn't you tell her the truth?" Chase asked._

" _She didn't need to worry about it." Sweetie answered. "Telling her would only make her worry about me." She got off the table she was on, having recovered enough to walk, but wincing when she landed on her injured leg._

" _Careful, Sweetie," Marshall warned. "Your leg is still injured. They may have been small cuts, but you should-" He had been trying to warn her, but she cut him off._

" _I know how to take care of myself!" she barked, making the medic shrink back. Realizing her behavior, she felt guilty. "I'm sorry, pup. I'm just a little sad right now."_

" _Is it the guy who attacked you?" Rubble asked. Sweetie didn't look at him but nodded her heard while looking at the floor._

" _I devoted my life to serving him. He promised me that I'd be next in line for the throne, but the minute I'm in disagreement with the princess, he throws knives at me. He tries to kill me." She rubbed her leg, having still felt the pain. Then she turned her head to Ryder. "I need your help. When we get to Barkingburg, I'm going to take down the dog who betrayed me." Ryder was surprised. All the pups present were as well. "I know I don't have any right to ask this of you. I've been a nuisance to the lot of you in the past, but you're the only group I can turn to. And I can't do this by myself."_

" _Why should we trust you?" Marshall demanded. "We've been tricked by you three times in the past. Shame on us for that, but we won't have it a fourth time."_

" _We've trusted you even after you framed Chase." Rubble agreed. "Then you took over the castle with robot knights." Chase had stayed quiet along with Ryder. They were weighing the options of what to do. Finally, Chase spoke._

" _I think it's best if we try to help you." He answered, surprising both his friends. "I know what you're thinking, but we can't take the chance. She's cried wolf more than once, but we can't take the chance of an actual wolf this time."_

" _Well spoken, Chase." Ryder said. "If we pass off her words as lies, this one might be the real deal. We'd be leaving Barkingburg defenseless. We can't take that risk." He called the pups not present. "PAW Patrol, to the Air Patroller!"_

" _Ryder needs us!" all the pups called out simultaneously._

* * *

"Is that what we sound like?" Rocky asked.

"It sounds almost like we're hypnotized." Everest commented, Marshall and Zuma nodding.

"It's more like we're eager." Chase said.

"We're in the room with him and we still called out too," Rubble pointed out. "And real-life Skye said it too." Chase looked over and noticed Skye wasn't there anymore. Looking around, they saw her at the elevator, feeling silly for almost going to the Air Patroller.

"Let's not talk about this." She said, going back to her seat. The other pups laughed.

"Okay, maybe we're a little brainwashed." Chase admitted.

"It's in the dog food." Ryder joked.

* * *

 _The pups and Ryder ran to the elevator, trying to hurry down to meet the rest. Ryder had gone ahead of them, getting the Air Patroller ready to take off. All the pups, including Sweetie had ran onto the plane, Marshall still being last._

" _Wait for me!" he shouted. He tripped on a plastic bowling pin, however, rolling up the ramp and crashing into the pups, leaving Chase and Sweetie standing on opposite sides. Marshall looked up at the two of them. "Darn! A seven-ten split." The entire team laughed, even Sweetie chuckled a little, which is when the rest of the team noticed her._

" _Hey, what are you doing here?" Skye asked._

" _It's a long story." Chase said, answering for her. "We'll fill you in on the way to Barkingburg." The team got out from the pup pile, all running toward the cockpit. The six pups took their seats, while Sweetie stood there awkwardly. Chase gave his salute. "PAW Patrol, ready for action, Ryder, sir!"_

" _Thank you all for coming, pups," Ryder said, looking at his team, "because we have a problem out in Barkingburg." Ryder explained everything Sweetie had told them to the other pups, who glanced in between the terrier and their leader._

" _Wait, you were trained by a master thief?" Rubble said, sounding impressed. "That's… actually really cool."_

" _Rubble, we don't support thievery." Chase said, turning towards Sweetie. "If we're doing this, I think it's best that you tell us everything you know about this guy." Sweetie nodded._

" _His name is Dusk." She declared. "He's not well-known, because he's good at what he does. The security never catches him because he's an expert hacker and pawkour pro, along with high-ranking belts in multiple martial arts."_

" _Sounds like a tough dog." Marshall commented._

" _And heartless," Sweetie added. "He doesn't kill because he finds it more challenging. He's not above it, though." She rubbed her leg again, knowing that the cuts came from the person she was talking about._

" _How good is he?" Zuma asked, curiously._

" _Did you hear about the theft of the Running Pointer?" Sweetie asked rhetorically. The Running Pointer was one of the most famous paintings in Barkingburg, valued for thousands of dollars. The pups shook their heads, not having heard of any such robbery. "That's because he had a fake put there. Have a professional examine it and they'd tell you that it's not real. Dusk stole it a while ago and no one suspected a thing."_

" _I've seen that painting." Ryder said. "There's no way anyone could steal that."_

" _Have someone check it then." Ryder nodded and made a call while the pups talked. "By the way, we've been flying for a while. You pups usually get to Barkingburg in ten minutes."_

" _There's no immediate threat." Chase replied. "Barkingburg is over a thousand miles away. We can't use the Air Patroller at full speed every time we go, or we'll wear out the engines."_

" _It'll take over two hours to get there." Skye said, knowing how fast their jet moved. She turned to her team. "In the meantime, want to play Pup-Pup Boogie? I got Ryder to hook it up for long trips." The team cheered, excited to play their favorite game._

" _Do the pup-pup boogie!" Marshall shouted, dancing in place. The doors closed, showing the big TV screen in the Air Patroller. The theme song for Pup-pup Boogie started playing, before showing the start menu._

" _Can I play?" Sweetie asked cautiously. The PAW Patrol looked at each other curiously. They weren't sure what to say. Sweetie thought she was being ostracized, which would make sense, considering their past encounters. Finally, Zuma looked at her._

" _Awe you any good?" he asked politely, surprising Sweetie. Grinning, she tilted her head up pridefully._

" _I'm the best there is." She declared, putting a paw to her chest. "I can beat any of you."_

" _I'll bet you couldn't even beat Marshall," Rocky challenged, before turning to his friend. "No offense."_

" _None taken." Marshall replied, waiving the comment. "The tail-spin is where I usually lose." They all put in their avatars for a tournament. Luckily, the game had a bracket system ready and the team played their game._

* * *

"It's like she expected us to say no," Marshall observed.

"Would we?" Skye asked. "I mean, this is under circumstances where we'd be forced to work with her. It's best we act as a team so long as we are one."

"We'll never know, I guess," Zuma said. "Maybe we should take a field twip to Bawkingburg sometime and twy."

"I don't see why not." Ryder agreed. "I do have a standing invitation for a royal tour by the princess."

"Why am I not in this?" Everest finally complained. "I really want to help stop bad guys."

"It might be because I don't have any Mission Paw gear for you yet." Ryder answered. "If we're going after an extraordinary thief, we'd need extraordinary gear and vehicles."

"Does that mean they're going on a…" Skye started.

"Mission PAW!" the pups shouted together, except for Everest.

"Why don't I have special gear for those times?" Everest pondered aloud.

"It's not that we don't want you out there." Rocky said. "We just need you equipped when you are. You were a big help when she took the throne. A snowboard isn't always useful, though." Everest whimpered a little, making Rocky feel guilty. "I don't mean anything by it. You're incredible when you work." The other pups voiced their agreement.

"As it happens, I'm trying to come up with some new equipment for you." Ryder declared. "Chase and Marshall have two roles on the team each and it's working great. I figured the rest of you having training in other fields would be a good idea." The pups looked at each other, excited to learn new skills.

* * *

 _Thirty minutes later, the pups were half-way through the semi-finals. Rocky, Marshall, Rubble, and Chase were all beaten. Skye was going to the finals and Zuma and Sweetie were about to start their match. It was impressive watching Sweetie move in her first match, coincidentally with Marshall. She had pulled off all the moves splendidly and beat her opponent with the tailspin._

" _It's always that move," Marshall complained. Sweetie patted him on the back. Hard to do, considering the height difference._

" _You've just got to work on your balance." She advised encouragingly. She stepped onto the dance pad, Zuma doing the same. The counter started, the pups getting ready. When the countdown ended, the music played, signaling the start of the game. The two pups followed the prompts on the screen, keeping in step to the game. Still, there was an obvious skill difference between the two, favoring Sweetie as the winner. Still, Zuma was giving her a challenge. If she had been human, she would be covered in sweat. Still, she finished the match with grace, having had the higher score over Zuma, who had been out of breath and slumped to the ground._

" _Whewe'd you leawn to dance like that?" he asked. Sweetie's eyes widened, not expecting the question. Then she smiled politely._

" _A lady's gotta have her secrets." She responded. Skye stepped up, getting on her dance pad._

" _Here's my secret," she said, stretching out her legs, "you're not going to beat me,"_

" _Oh really?" Sweetie asked, challengingly. She put her paw on the game machine, turning a knob. A six appeared on the screen, before quickly rising to a ten. "Let's play it on max difficulty." The pups' mouths dropped at the challenge._

* * *

"Max difficulty?!" Chase shouted. "We've only played it on eight _at most_ before."

"I've played ten a couple times." Skye corrected, also surprised. "Although I've never played it competitively."

"I played it and lost quickly." Marshall added. "I stuck to six since."

"This will be fun to watch." Zuma commented.

* * *

 _The music started, and the two female pups started to dance. Skye, unused to the highest difficulty, started out sloppy, missing many more steps than Sweetie, who was getting her moves almost perfect. Skye noticed this and took a deep breath, trying to calm down and focus. As she did, her steps got better and started to improve her score. Sweetie, taking a moment to glance over, saw that Skye was starting to catch up, momentarily distracting her, letting her score fall. She panicked a little and regained her focus. The other pups watched, mesmerized by the two pups dancing almost in sync with the music. Even taking away the music, Skye and Sweetie were in perfect harmony, matching each other step-for-step, flipping in the air and landing at the same time, even their tails were wagging at the same speed. The match had gone for almost three minutes, and Skye, given her rocky start, had trailed just behind Sweetie in points the entire time. It seemed that the terrier had won the match. However, Chase could hear her. Her breathing was starting to get heavier, as though she was getting tired. He looked to Skye and saw that she was just as focused as ever. He concluded that endurance matches were not her strength as her dancing had started to slow. She gasped when she realized that Skye had taken the lead in her score and tried to catch up, but in her panic, her steps had become sloppy. Her score fell heavily, before she finally lost due to too many mistakes. Panting, she collapsed on the dance pad, too out of breath to say words. Skye, who was more winded than she looked, sat down on one of the seats._

" _That was tough." She admitted, laying down on her seat. She tilted her head to look at Sweetie. "You're really good at this." Sweetie, hearing this, was surprised. She'd never expected to hear compliments from her constant adversaries. It made her happy for a moment before being on her guard again. Even if they did have similar interests and goals for the moment, they were still enemies on any other day. Her head still angled down, she could see Zuma's legs walking up to her. She flinched, expecting… well, she didn't know what to expect. A bowl of water being placed in front of her wasn't it, though._

" _Thiwsty?" he asked kindly. She looked up and saw him smiling at her. "That looked intense so I thought you would want some water." Sweetie looked up at him cautiously, before drinking some of the water before her. Satisfied, she got up and stretched._

" _Thank you, Zuma." she said to the water pup. "I guess I am a little parched." She looked to Skye and saw Marshall doing the same for her. She sat down on one of the chairs before Rubble and Rocky walked up to her._

" _How did you get so good at Pup-Pup Boogie?" Rubble asked. Sweetie seemed to hesitate on her answer for a moment, but spoke nonetheless._

" _Practice. Lots and lots of practice." She answered slightly boastfully. "I've been playing for years, whenever the princess is busy. Which is pretty often." She ended her statement sadly, which the pups picked up on, yet decided not to pry._

" _Hey, when you're ready, do you want to play co-op?" Skye asked, making Sweetie surprised. "We both did really good there. If we play together, we could probably make the new high score." Panicking, Chase and Marshall jumped onto the machine and started it up, playing to the best of their abilities. Sweetie was confused about their jumpiness and looked at Skye. "They're pretty protective of their high-score." The two were frantically dancing, having never been on level 10 difficulty before, but it was clear that Chase was carrying the team while Marshall fell behind. They'd managed to beat their previous high-score, but not by much. Sweetie smiled._

" _Sounds lovely." She said sincerely._

* * *

"I didn't think I'd play co-op on the hardest difficulty." Skye said. "Still, she was pretty good, right Chase?" She looked over, expecting to see her leader, but the German Shepherd wasn't there anymore. She was about to ask Marshall, but he was gone too. The pups looked around, before Zuma pointed them out in the corner, playing Pup-pup boogie on a smaller TV.

"I think they might be overreacting." Everest commented. "Just a bit."

"We're not reacting _enough!_ " Chase replied, having very precise steps. Marshall was trying to catch up, but it was clear that he was starting to tire out.

"They are _very_ protective." Skye affirmed.

* * *

 _About a half hour of Pup-Pup Boogie later, the Air Patroller had approached Barkingburg. Having approached sunset before they left, it was nighttime in Barkingburg._

" _Take your seats, pups," Ryder ordered, putting his own seatbelt on. "We're landing in a couple minutes." The pups rushed to sit in their seats, Sweetie sitting between Skye and Zuma. "We'll be facing an international thief. An extraordinary mission like this calls for extraordinary gear."_

" _Are you saying this is a…" Rocky started, with the team finishing together. "Mission PAW!" Ryder nodded, the team excited to use their specialty gear._

" _Robo-dog, put us in stealth mode." Ryder ordered, the robot barking in response. The Air Patroller had taken to dark colors t blend in with the night sky, right before landing on the heli-pad to their underwater base. The pups ran out and put on their gear, all wearing their Mission PAW uniform. Sweetie looked around, surprised that the PAW Patrol was letting her in their base. She followed the group regardless, not wanting to be left behind. She left her own equipment in the castle and was still without uniform when she'd caught up with the rest._

" _We all know what we're here to do." Ryder said, about to push buttons on his pup pad. Before he could however, it had started to ring. He answered it, revealing someone he didn't know. "Ryder of the PAW Patrol here. How can I help you?"_

" _Good evening, Mr. Ryder," the unknown man said. "I am Jeffery Artsworthy. I've called about that painting you inquired about." Ryder remembered calling the museum to warn them that they might have a fake. "We've concluded that the painting of the Running Pointer is indeed a sham. It's been stolen and replaced." Ryder was surprised. Sweetie was telling the truth. "Granted, it's a really good fake, but we've no leads on where the real one is."_

" _Don't worry, Mr. Artsworthy," Ryder said. "The PAW Patrol is following a lead as we speak. No job is too big, no pup is too small." He pushed a button on the pup pad and was about to call the PAW Patrol out of habit, before looking around. "Oh yeah, we're already here."_

* * *

"I guess I'm a little hypnotized too," Ryder admitted, chuckling at himself. The pups laughed too.

"Just a little bit." Skye said.

* * *

" _Mr. Artsworthy, make sure that this doesn't hit the news." Ryder said. "It's best that the thief doesn't know we're on to him."_

" _Understood." The art expert said before hanging up. Ryder looked towards all the pups._

" _Well, this will provide a reason for us to be in Barkingburg for the princess." Ryder said. He clicked Chase and Rocky's symbols on his pup pad. "Chase and Rocky, head to the museum and look for clues."_

" _It won't help." Sweetie commented before they could cay their callouts. "He stole that almost a month ago. Any evidence is gone by now. It might be best if I just take you to his base."_

" _You know where his base is?" Ryder asked._

" _Of course, I do." Sweetie confirmed. "He's been training me for a long time. I go there when I can and he teaches me."_

" _Why didn't you mention this before?" Chase asked._

" _You didn't ask." Sweetie answered as if the answer should've been obvious. Ryder rolled his eyes._

" _In that case, for this mission, you'll be a temporary member of the PAW Patrol." He decreed, surprising the other pups. They might've had fun together on the plane ride, but they were still far from trusting their old enemy. Sweetie was surprised as well, not expecting that to happen. "We don't have much of a choice, considering you're the only one who can lead us where we need to go."_

" _I don't have a catchphrase to shout, so I guess I'll do what's necessary." Sweetie responded, still unsure what to think. The pups were watching her suspiciously, feeling as though they should be on guard._

" _Since we've never dealt with him before, it's best that the entire team moves together." Ryder declared, pushing buttons to load everyone's vehicles into the Mission PAW Cruiser. "Alright! Mission PAW is on a roll!" He jumped into the front seat of the cruiser behind Robo-dog, while the pups took their usual seats in the cruiser. Sweetie sat all the way at the end next to Skye before the cruiser started, driving up to the front doors of the castle._

* * *

"Our equipment looks really cool." Marshall said.

"That's what you're focusing on?" Rocky asked. "Not that we just had a professional thief that's fought against us multiple times join our team?"

"I know that's probably going to end badly." Marshall admitted. "But our uniforms look cool. I've never seen what I look like in it before."

"I don't think it will end badly." Chase interjected.

"Why are you so stubborn on defending her?" Skye asked teasingly. "Do you think she's cute or something?" Rubble, who was eating a biscuit, started coughing, almost choking from surprised.

"Yes, Chase." Rubble said, pushing the matter further. "Do you have a crush on Sweetie?"

"Why can't I be the optimist for once?" Chase asked. "I asked what would happen if Sweetie joined the PAW Patrol. She's supposed to be the hero this time around."

"I'm able to confirm of debunk your theory, Skye." Marshall said, ignoring Chase. All the pups did. "If Chase did have a crush, I'd know about it."

"Is this true, Chase?" Skye asked, acting hurt. "You'd tell Marshall your secrets over me?" Chase, not picking up on the joking undertone, looked for something to distract her.

"Look, a thing is happening on TV." He declared. All the pups turned their eyes back to the screen.

* * *

" _Oh, my darling Sweetie!" the princess shouted, picking up the royal pup. "I've been so worried! I'm sorry about the things I said."_

" _Don't be." Sweetie said. "You were right to say those things." The princess let her pup down and turned to Ryder._

" _Thank you for bringing my pup back to me." She said gratefully. "I know Barkingburg is pretty far from Adventure Bay." It was only then that she noticed the PAW Patrol in their Mission PAW gear. "What is going on? Is there a mission?"_

" _There's been a theft at an art gallery. We've asked the owner to keep it under wraps." Ryder asked, respecting Sweetie's wishes to omit some details. "We'll be trying to catch the thief and reclaim the painting." He looked toward Sweetie. "I do beg your pardon, but we were hoping Sweetie might be able to assist us." The princess was confused._

" _Assist you?" she repeated. "How?"_

" _I've already agreed to it if you'll let me." Sweetie said. "They pointed out my previous… experience… in thievery and were hoping I could give some perspective." The princess would have been insulted if Ryder had implied that Sweetie had been a thief. Which is why it only made her pause since Sweetie admitted it. Thinking for a moment, she gave a little nod._

" _If Sweetie can atone for her past crimes in any way, I give my blessing for her assistance." Sweetie barked happily before running into the castle, surprising the princess. "I didn't imagine that she'd be so excited at the prospect of spending time with you. You pups must've had a splendid time together."_

" _It_ was _a good plane wide." Zuma agreed, Skye nodding next to him._

" _Me and her beat the high score on our Pup-Pup Boogie," she declared, making Chase and Marshall whimper. "Ignore them. They'd held that score for months and lost it." Sweetie drove out of the castle moments later in her purple roadster._

" _I'll lead the way, pups!" she called out. "Bye, princess." She drove away into town._

" _Bye, Sweetie!" the princess called back. The PAW Patrol jumped into the cruiser before Robo-dog drove it away._

" _Does anyone know what the princess' name is?" Rubble asked. "We only ever call her the princess." Chase was about to answer, before he realized he didn't know either. Looking around, none of the pups seemed to have an answer._

" _Now I feel bad." Chase said, lowering his head. "I'm her favorite on the team, yet I don't know her name." He whimpered, before Skye patted him on the back._

" _That's embarrassing." Marshall commented. "We'll have to figure it out later."_

 _Sweetie led the Mission Cruiser out of town toward a forest, where she drove straight to the base of a cliff, stopping just by the rocks. The PAW Patrol stepped out of the cruiser, not sure what to expect._

" _This seems like the dark and creepy spot where there would be a trap." Rubble commented, cautiously looking through the woods to check for predators._

" _Yeah, Sweetie, what are we doing here?" Chase said, not at all fazed by the darkness._

" _I guess Dusk removed my security codes from my roadster." She said. "There's supposed to be a door that opens right here."_

" _Are you sure?" Marshall asked, looking around. "These cliffs all look the same to me."_

" _Positive." Sweetie turned toward a tree and looked toward the top of the cliff. "I've got another way in, though." She ran toward the tree, jumping on the lowest branch easily. She jumped to the next one which was even farther. "I'll be right back." She jumped to another branch that was just too high and swung off of it to another one. She climbed the trees with ease, not missing a step all the way to the top before disappearing._

" _She weally could've been queen of the monkeys." Zuma said, watching the entire display._

" _Skye, if she doesn't come back soon, would you mind following her?" Ryder said. It didn't matter, however, as part of the cliff was suddenly lifting from the ground. A perfect square of the cliff, which then separated and spread apart like sliding doors. Once they were open, Sweetie was standing there calmly._

" _Told you there was a door here." She said a little snarky._

" _That was an amazing climb," Rubble commented. "You're almost like Fox-Pup." Sweetie scoffed at this._

" _Fox-Pup wishes he was me." She said._

" _Right, the rival to Apollo the Super Pup wishes he was you." Rubble said sarcastically._

" _He's only the rival because he monopolized Apollo's weakness and made weapons out of it. He's not all that great by himself."_

" _He's the_ peak _of pup ability, though." Chase argued. "I'd say Fox-Pup is the better of the two. He's never been caught off guard and he's always ready for anything. Also…"_

" _If you use the prep time argument," Sweetie said, cutting Chase off, "I will counter with Apollo's prep being that he could power up so much that his weakness wouldn't even matter. He's really unstoppable." Chase was at a loss for words, considering that was the exact argument he was about to say._

" _He's still the best superhero." He argued._

" _No, the Swift Canine is." Marshall countered. "He's able to run so fast that even Apollo feels his punches when he winds up."_

" _I'd say Power Princess," Skye added. "She has actually fought on par with Apollo and has no weaknesses."_

" _In the Silver Age, any male just has to tie her legs up and she's powerless." Rocky countered. "I'd give it to Grey Ring. His strength is only limited by his willpower. And he has enough to even stop Apollo for a while._

" _I'd go with Aqua-Pup." Zuma stated. All the other dogs just stared at him dumbly. "Oh, come on, dudes. He's undewated. He's the only one of the superhewoes mentioned who can mowtally wound Apollo faiw and squawe."_

" _Regardless or all your reasoning," Sweetie interjected, "Apollo is the best for one reason above all else: You all used him as the yardstick. It doesn't matter which superhero you name, Apollo is the one to compare to."_

" _Yeah." Rubble agreed. "No one compares Apollo to anyone."_

* * *

"They've got a point." Everest agreed. "Although, personally, I like Spider-Pup."

"They're not even from the same universe, though." Chase said.

"Yeah, but he can still beat Fox-Pup in a fight." Everest countered. "He's still my favorite."

* * *

" _Is this really an important conversation right now?" Ryder interrupted, walking through the doors. "We're about to apprehend someone who successfully stole a painting, along with who knows what else, and no one's noticed for a month."_

" _He's right, guys." Chase agreed. "Let's head in and move cautiously." The pups nodded and moved quietly. Torches were lit along the walls of the cavern, giving a dim view of the path in front of them. Sweetie was visibly uneasy, shaking while looking at the walls. "Are you alright?" Sweetie perked up, hearing the leader's voice._

" _I'm fine." She said, having a clearly fake smile. "Let's just hurry through the tunnel. The sooner we get there, the sooner we take down Dusk." She rushed ahead, staying away from the walls for unknown reasons._

" _Sweetie, don't go too far." Ryder called. "We shouldn't get separated since the seven of us don't know our way around." Sweetie listened, waiting for them to catch up, yet keeping her head on a swivel._

* * *

"Am I the only one noticing how Sweetie's been watching the walls?" Rubble asked.

"No, she's watching the walls alright." Chase said. "I'm starting to sense a trap."

"Let's hope we don't let our guard down in there then." Skye said.

"Guys, we can't just immediately assume the worst of her." Marshall said, contradicting the rest of the pups. "We're supposed to assume the best in people and pups alike, even if we've fought in the past." The rest of the pups still had their doubts.

* * *

 _Marshall, ahead of the rest of the group, accidentally bumped against one of the torches, sending it to the ground, letting the fire glass inside spread a bit. Sweetie, only about three feet from the falling torch, squealed and jumped behind Chase, who was the nearest toward her._

" _Arf! Hydro Launcher!" Marshall called, activating his pup pack. While it wasn't made for smothering fires, his hydro launcher still put out the fire. "Okay, fire's out, Ryder." He turned toward his leader, who seemed to be focused on Chase. Or more accurately, the pup cowering behind Chase. Thinking he must've scared her, he felt guilty. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I wasn't trying to scare you." Sweetie was unresponsive, making Marshall feel even worse. "Sweetie, are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?" After a moment, Sweetie responded with a small head shake. Connecting the dots in his head, Rubble spoke._

" _Sweetie, are you afraid of fire?" he asked cautiously. Sweetie, unable to answer, just broke down in tears, giving them all the confirmation they needed. Marshall patted her on the back, unsure what else he could do._

" _I'm such a wimp!" she cried, still sobbing. "I'm scared. I admit it."_

" _It's no problem." Marshall said, comforting the smaller pup. "At least your fear is rational." Sweetie sniffled, trying to regain herself while looking at Marshall. He gestured to Skye, who was also feeling bad. "I can't stand being in the harness of Skye's helicopter, even though I know how great a pilot she is." The aerial pup blushed at the praise._

" _I'm scared of dentists." Chase added. "Who wants someone poking needles in their mouth?" The pups giggled, even Sweetie who stopped crying._

" _Rocky's is the worst of us all." Marshall said. "He's scared of water."_

" _I'm not_ scared _of it." Rocky denied. "I just don't like it touching me. Or near me. Or on the others since it smells weird." The pups and Ryder laughed about it a bit._

" _The point is, we all have our fears." Marshall finished. "It's okay to be afraid." Sweetie stared at him for a second more before smiling and standing back up._

" _Thank you, Marshall." She said sincerely. "I've just been absolutely terrified around open flames since…" she trailed off, making the pups wonder but didn't push the matter further. Appreciating it, she still felt the need to be honest and grabbed her chew toy to squeeze a bit for comfort. "…since I lost my mum." The pups gasped, not expecting something so tragic. Unwillingly, she was now the center of a group hug, Marshall and Skye starting it with the others following. Once it was over, Ryder picked her up and held her against his chest._

" _Marshall, Rubble, run ahead and extinguish the rest of the torches." He ordered. The two barked and ran ahead, Rubble carefully tipping over a torch while Marshall used his Hydro Launcher to put it out._

" _You didn't have to do that, Ryder." Sweetie said, feeling like a burden. "I could've just dealt with it. And you're using most of your pup's water reserves."_

" _It holds a lot more than it seems." Ryder said, looking over his shoulder to check their progress. "Marshall, shoot it at the ceiling and make it spray over the torches instead. Marshall, confused, obeyed and shot at the ceiling and saw that the water beam broke and sprayed over a wide area, putting out more torches at once. "Rubble, run a few torches ahead and keep an eye on how many are left. Zuma, go with him." The pups followed the orders and ran ahead. Once the torches were put out for a far enough distance, the rest continued._

* * *

The pups were silent, eyeing the TV, unsure of how to feel of what they learned. Finally, Marshall spoke.

"Well, I told you it wasn't a trap." He said glumly. "She wasn't eyeing the walls."

"Just the torches." Chase affirmed. "And I thought it was a trap."

"I guess we all still hold grudges." Skye said guiltily. "Even if we're supposed to see the best in others." The other pups nodded glumly.

* * *

 _It was a dark tunnel now and Chase was leading the way with his night vision goggles. Ryder followed close behind, along with Sweetie and Rocky, while Skye was covering the tail. Rocky noticed the chew toy following Sweetie and decided to inquire about it._

" _I was wondering." He whispered to get her attention, "where'd you get that chew toy from?" Sweetie looked at him, then back at the rolling toy._

" _Busby?" she clarified, which Rocky nodded to. "I made him."_

" _You_ made _him?" Rocky repeated, taking a closer look at Busby. It rolled smoothly for a chew toy and seemed to brush off any dirt that stuck to itself. "Impressive. How does it work?"_

" _I give him orders through my collar. He rolls when I tell him to and he follows it." Rocky nodded, listening carefully to her words. "He's also programmed to activate certain protocols, like when I plugged him into the Air Patroller. He uses the same software as your Robo-dog, just to a lesser degree."_

" _Interesting." Rocky commented. "Why did you make him?"_

" _Company, mostly." She said. "The princess is gone most of the time, so I turned one of my chew toys into a friend." Rocky blinked, not expecting that answer. It really did surprise him how much he didn't know about his enemies before._

" _When you get back, you should talk to the princess." He said. "You shouldn't have to build friends to make some." Sweetie gave him a surprised stare, before turning her head away._

" _It's the only way in my life." She said sadly. Rocky's reply came instant._

" _I don't believe that." He said, no hesitance in his voice. "I thought that way too at one point but then I became a member of the PAW Patrol." He looked at his friends, who weren't listening to them and focusing on the task at hand. "I went from being a pessimistic mechanic to a resourceful inventor in a week." He looked at back at Sweetie. "Temporary or not, you are too. That means you're our friend." Sweetie looked from the mixed-breed to the Cockapoo, to the German Shepherd. She thought of the Labrador, the Bulldog and the Dalmatian as well. She hadn't realized it, but the PAW Patrol was slowly becoming her friends. It made her feel guilty. She'd been fighting them for so long and for what? A stupid crown. It wouldn't make her queen just wearing it and she knew it. She felt like that wasn't even the goal, anyway. But what else could it have been?_

" _Ryder!" Rubble's voice came from up ahead, snatching Sweetie from her thoughts._

" _The towches." Zuma said, coming from next to him. "Thewe's no mowe of them."_

" _That means we're at the end." Sweetie declared, taking the lead._

" _Just so you know, there's about four more torches left." Marshall warned. "We didn't put them out, so we could still have the element of surprise."_

" _I'll be fine." Sweetie said, voice a little shaky. They walked calmly and quietly through the hall, approaching the leftover torches that Marshall mentioned. Sweetie tensed up, but felt braver walking past them, the rest of the PAW Patrol following her. They sprinted through, once they were out of the hall, rushing into the room._

" _PAW Patrol! Free-" was all Ryder said before he realized the room was empty. It was big room, with a couple of doors on both the left and right side. The far end had a three large computer screens side-by-side. There was an interesting square tile layout in the middle of the room in a rainbow pattern, the innermost square being violet and turning to red as it went further out. Still the PAW Patrol was confused when there Dusk wasn't in the room._

" _Are you sure he's supposed to be here?" Chase asked, noticing the lack of master thieves in the room. Sweetie walked over to the computer, glancing to her left and right, with the team following behind her._

" _I thought so." She said. "Let me check his computer." She ran and sat down, with the team calmly crossing the tiled floor. Sweetie watched them, before sighing. "I'm sorry about this." She pushed a button and a cage fell from the ceiling, trapping all seven members of the PAW Patrol in it._

" _Sweetie! What's going on?" Skye asked, trying to believe in the terrier, even though she knew what was happening._

" _Isn't it obvious?" an adult voice said from the other side of the room. "You've fallen for my trap." A grown West Highland Terrier with black fur came from a partially opened door._

" _Dusk." Ryder deduced. "You sent Sweetie to us on purpose. She was never in danger. She just tricked us into your trap."_

" _I thought you were the smart one." The grown dog said. "I didn't make her do anything. I thought she was no longer useful, so I turned her away." He patted the pup on her head. "Although, since I did train her, all her achievements can be traced to me."_

" _Sweetie!" Chase shouted, making the small terrier look at him. "How could you?"_

" _I thought we were friends." Rocky said sadly. Sweetie looked away, seeming ashamed._

" _Friends or not," Dusk interrupted. "She knows the rules: Your father's word comes first." He looked toward Sweetie. "Isn't that right, my daughter?" The pups gasped, surprised at what they just heard. "Oh, she didn't tell you? Sweetie here is my oldest daughter."_

* * *

An image of Chase popped up on the screen. " _To be continued_." He said.

"What?!" Chase shouted angrily, running up to the ARW machine. "You can't do that! I want to know what happens now!" He started to shake the small TV.

" _Calm down!"_ the ARW Chase commanded. " _You've been running me nonstop for hours! I need a break every now and then or the calibrations will be off. I might accidentally show you what happens if Germany won WWII instead. Go take a thirty minute break, eat some food or something, then come back."_ The image went away, leaving the real life Chase to be embarrassed by his outburst.

"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly.

"It's okay." Ryder said. "It's a little convenient anyway. I ordered pizza a little while ago with everyone's favorite toppings." The pups cheered before running to the elevator.

* * *

 **This chapter was actually just about as long as I planned it to be. I knew that to fit everything in that I wanted it to, I'd have to break it into two chapters. And I know that's two to-be-continued chapters in a row. It's not like I wanted to. It just happened. Anyway, the next chapter will continue this one, and it should conclude the Sweetie story smoothly. Hopefully. Please leave your reviews and tell me how you like this chapter.**


	7. Sweetie's Regret

**Some of you may be wondering… something. I hope so. Either way, I have either Rocky or Skye next and I have to figure out which one and what question they're going to ask. After I get through them, I've got the question Ryder will ask. I'll figure out which one is next by the end of writing this one. Anyway, I've recently read the PAW Patrol Z story by Chimchang14. While it was interesting, and I did permit it, I do plan to write more and so I deny the canonity (I am aware that isn't a word) of it.**

 **On a side note, does anyone use their word program and it keeps giving you suggestions for concise language? It's useful when writing essays, but it sounds too formal for fiction writing, fan or otherwise. Anyway, this is the next, and probably final, segment of Sweetie's Mission PAW, unless otherwise requested.**

* * *

"Why do you always have to put pineapple on your pizza?" Zuma complained, walking off the elevator. "It's so weiwd."

"Because it tastes delicious." Rocky replied, following his friend. "It's not a conventional topping, but it is refreshing."

"It's just so gwoss." Zuma complained, sticking his tongue out.

"Hey, I don't say anything about the anchovies you put on your pizza!" Rocky argued. "No one but you likes anchovies and no one complains about it."

"He's got a point Zuma." Chase agreed. "We all have our preferences." The water pup ignored him and continued the argument.

"Anchovies awe officially a pizza topping. Pineapple is just a fwuit that belongs faw away fwom cheese and tomato sauce."

"Peppers and olives are fruit, but no one says anything about them either." Rocky countered. "Anchovies might have been a pizza topping for longer, but they shouldn't be. They're disgusting."

"Awe not!"

"Are too." Everest piped in. Zuma waited for someone else to agree with him, but the entire team seemed to be against him. "No one likes anchovies."

"That's enough, pups." Ryder said, breaking up the argument. "I want to know how this Mission PAW is gonna end." The pups relaxed, laying down on their beanbags and watching the screen.

"ARW," Chase called out, since it was still his question, "how does Sweetie joining the PAW Patrol end?" Ryder pulled the lever, the ARW starting to calibrate.

"We already know how it'll end." Rubble said. "We'll escape our capture, beat Sweetie, and capture Dusk."

"Don't be so sure, Rubble." Ryder said. "I feel like there's still more there than we see."

"Ryder, she betrayed us." He said, disagreeing with his leader. "We called her our friend, we played with her, worked with her, even helped her in bad moments. Then she turned her back on us. I don't think she has it in her to be good." Rocky cringed, visibly to all the other pups, but said nothing.

"We'll see." Skye said, watching the screen, which has finished loading. The pups were now in separate cells, having been caught by Sweetie. Ryder, Zuma, Skye, and Rubble seemed to be looking for a way out, while the others just had a defeated expression.

* * *

" _You're wasting your time." Chase commented. "This isn't the first time I've been trapped in one of Sweetie's dungeons. They're escape proof, even if we had our pup packs." The pups working ignored him, continuing to inspect the walls, looking for a weakness. In their capture, the floor had electrocuted them, paralyzing them for an uncertain amount of time. They had woken up in the cells, not even certain of where they were at."_

" _It isn't like you to give up, Chase." Ryder said, looking sad for his pup._

" _It's best I don't make any decisions." He responded, not lifting his head. "If I didn't defend Sweetie, we wouldn't be in this mess."_

" _Don't blame youwself, dude." Zuma said, not taking his attention from the walls. "We all twusted hew."_

" _It started with me, though." Chase argued. "If I didn't decide we had to help her, we wouldn't be in this mess."_

" _Yet I agreed." Ryder said. "Don't think this is all your fault. We've all made our mistakes."_

" _Mine was using all my water." Marshall said, lamenting. "If I still had my Hydro Launcher, maybe I could've cut through the bars on that trap."_

" _I told you to." Ryder said sadly. "That was irresponsible of me."_

" _Maybe I could've…" Rocky started before Skye cut him off._

" _That's it!" she shouted, turning toward the cells. "I am_ not _sitting in this cell, listening to you three blame yourselves. We've had our kindness taken advantage of."_

" _Yeah." Rubble agreed, also turning toward the hall they were all facing. "Sweetie tricked us all. It wasn't just one or two of you." Rocky thought about it for a moment, before standing up._

" _You're right." He said, standing on his paws again. "And we'll need to work together to get out of this mess." Marshall glanced over, not feeling the same bout of confidence that Rocky did, and saw that while he was making an effort to help the others, he's not feeling any better. Sighing, he lay his head back down, not wanting to mess things up. Chase was even worse for separate reasons. The two were in cells right next to each other's. The others were trying to devise a way out, the two of them were in the back of their cells, near the walls. Chase noticed a loose brick in the wall separating them and moved it._

" _Marshall," he called quietly, not wanting to get the others' attention. The dally noticed the missing brick and inched toward it. "Do you think this was my fault?" he asked slowly, not sure how else to phrase the question. Marshall was silent, out of confusion or not, Chase couldn't tell, so continued anyway. "I'm the one who vouched for Sweetie. If I'd listened to you and Rubble, Ryder probably wouldn't have launched the mission. We wouldn't have been caught. We wouldn't be in these cells."_

" _Chase, I vouched too." Marshall said, stopping Chase. "I'd checked her when she came to the lookout. If I'd been more thorough, maybe I would've known she'd been faking." Chase replayed the events in his head from the lookout many times. No matter how many times he did, though, he couldn't think of anything that should have aroused suspicion._

" _You did your job as an EMT. You looked for injuries and treated her." Chase said, comforting his friend. "And her cuts were real, probably part of her scam." Chase closed his eyes, only seeing Sweetie laughing at him when he did. Growling, he stood at his paws. "We've made our mistakes. But we can't let her and Dusk win. Let's get out of here." Marshall thought about it and couldn't stand Sweetie's betrayal either. He looked around his cell, inspecting the walls. Chase, on the other hand, inspected the cells. The doors were fairly old, seeming to be made long before any of them were born. Chase inspected each inch of it, taking note of the bar width. Yet something else caught his attention. "Rocky, what kind of hinges are on these doors?" The mechanic looked at the doors and noticed it._

" _Half-pin barrel hinges." He answered, sounding somewhat excited. Ryder was a little confused._

" _What does that mean?" he asked, curious as to what his pups have found._

" _We saw it in a movie once." Marshall answered. "If you use your bed as a lever, you can break the hinges, getting the doors off. Ryder, hopeful, checked the bed, which thankfully seemed to be usable. Beaming, he looked at each of his pups, who were all smiling about their success. "We might've been gullible in the past sixteen hours, but if there's one thing that's certain, we are all incredibly clever."_

" _It's been two hours!" a familiar voice called from down the hall. "Why haven't any of you opened your doors yet?" They didn't see the face, but they recognized the sound and accent immediately._

" _Sweetie!" Chase called out in anger. He slammed against the bars, trying to reach her instinctively, even when she wasn't in the room. When she walked in and saw Chase scratching at her, she was starting to rethink coming down to the dungeon in person. "What else could you possibly want?!" Sweetie recollected herself and back away, staying next to the one empty cell in the room._

" _Maybe that I could tell my past self not to have left the doors open to all your cells." She answered nervously. Ryder, previously angry, let go of his emotions and pushed the door open to his cell curiously. There wasn't any resistance. It opened easily. "Also wondering why I left seven of you in the same dungeon and not a single one of you tried their doors." The pups cautiously opened their doors, expecting some type of trap. They opened with a creak, making everyone wince a bit. Marshall walked out of his cell, looking around. "Now come on, we've gotta hurry." She started to walk into the hallway, before Chase pushed her against the wall._

" _What are you playing at now?!" he shouted, clearly angry. Sweetie, even more frightened than before, looked at him pleadingly in the eye. For a moment, Chase had a flicker of remorse in his eyes, but as quick as lightning, it was gone._

" _I need you." She said, trying to not let the fear take hold. "I know I don't have any right to ask this of you, but I need your help." Chase was stone-faced, not even considering listening to her. She looked at the other pups who were watching, but none of them moved to stop Chase. Marshall and Skye, on either side of Chase, watched her, teeth bared menacingly. Rocky watched her, saddened still, with Zuma standing next to him with a paw on his back. Rubble stood next to Ryder, who was also watching the scene play out. It was clear she was on her own. "I've made mistakes. I admit it. I can't possibly correct. I've tricked you multiple times for my family's gain. Now I want to atone for what I'vr done."_

" _Why should we believe you?" Chase asked, still holding her firmly against the wall. "We've trusted you time and time again, but all you do is fight us." Sweetie struggled to find the right words. She looked at her bandaged arm, still wrapped from when Marshall treated her._

" _I've spent my entire life trying to make my father proud of me." She said sadly. "I learned most of his tricks faster than any of my siblings. He said nothing. I became the royal pup when the princess bumped into me by chance. His lessons became more aggressive. I learned everything he had to teach me. He pressured me to steal the throne. I enacted three plans to do so without any help. He only focused on my failure." She wasn't struggling against Chase anymore, making him relax his hold, letting her calm down a bit. "When the princess and I had a fight about my greed, he decided I wasn't worth his time." At this point, she ripped her bandages off her arm. "And sliced at me with his bladed claws." Marshall looked at the three cuts, having some knowledge of such wounds and found it accurate. They were evenly spaced, implying they were part of one weapon. Also, the way they curved made it obvious that it happened while she ran since her leg would be moving._

" _I can vouch that she didn't let this happen to her." He affirmed, making the others confused. "Why would you continue to work for someone who would do this to you for that?"_

" _Like I said, I've only ever wanted his pride." She said, rubbing the cuts with her free paw. "I ran from him and ended up at the Lookout by chance. Which is where I came up with a plan to redeem myself." She broke eye contact, feeling ashamed of herself. "I thought if I could successfully capture you, he'd finally admit he's proud of me. And I did it without his help. When I caught you, I thought I might finally hear it, but all he did was brag about his success. He didn't even acknowledge me." All the pups were looking at her, almost saddened by the story. Chase, however, was having a hard time believing this. Even if Dusk was as uncaring as she was saying, he would need to keep her loyalty somehow. It didn't make sense to him. "After that, I looked back at everything. And I've wondered why I ever followed him. After I transferred you to these cells, I left the doors open, hoping you would take him down in the end. I even left your pup packs and vehicles in the next room. Chase motioned for Rocky to check and the mixed breed opened the door._

" _Our gear is here, Chase." He called, walking through the door. Marshall followed him and equipped his own gear, coming back with his Hydro Launcher ready. Sweetie continued, knowing the weapon was ready to shoot her._

" _I know I haven't given you enough reason to trust me," She admitted, looking Chase in the eyes, "but we need to work together to stop Dusk. While waiting for you, he told me his plan. He'll lead the princess out, using you guys as bait, then he'll sneak into the castle and steal the crown. Once he does, he'll use the Air Patroller to steal the throne and send it somewhere far away, giving a long distraction to get away with the crown."_

" _Sounds like your plans all rolled into one." Rubble pointed out. "Clearing the castle, stealing the crown, and stealing the throne."_

" _I created three plans." She said. "I never thought to combine them."_

" _Assuming any of this is true, you still haven't given us a reason to trust you." Ryder said, still standing back. Sweetie did her best to think of something that could help her trust them, but couldn't think of anything. Instead, she remembered an earlier conversation._

" _What about all that talk of not taking the risk of a real wolf?" she pleaded, unsure what else to say. Chase's eyes did not soften._

" _At this point, you seem to be a wolf in sheep's clothing." He argued._

* * *

"Is anyone else getting a headache from that Chase using so many metaphors?" Rubble asked.

"I am." Marshall agreed. "I know what you mean, buddy, but it's really annoying."

"I don't know why I would." Chase said, agreeing with the pups. "I mean I usually just say what I mean. I think it might have something to do with that universe." An image of Chase appeared on the screen.

" _It doesn't."_ he said. " _I just find it fun sometimes, so I add them in."_ The ARW went back to the program.

"It's been a while since he's done that." Skye said.

* * *

 _Sweetie tried her best to come up with something, but her mind was only drawing a blank._ _The other pups slowly surrounded her. She sighed, realizing there wasn't anything she could do to prove it._

" _His base is on the same island as the castle." She said, relenting the information she had. "The main entrance is underwater on the west side, but the side entrance can be opened from the inside, letting everyone else in." Chase narrowed his eyes, looking for a hint of a lie. When he saw none, he threw her into a cell, closing the door. Rocky picked the lock, locking it shut._

" _If you're telling the truth, we'll be back." He said simply. "If not, there won't be any more chances." The pups left her, all of them only sparing one more glance to the terrier, who was trying to get over the shock. When she did, she remembered that she hadn't given them a critical piece of information._

" _Wait!" she yelled as loud as she could, trying to get the attention of the others. "You have to know the security passwords, or you'll set off the traps!" She hoped one of them would have come back, but no one did. "Arf! Cell keys!" A set of keys sprung from her pup pack and she opened the cell door she was in and ran out to follow them. Their gear was gone, meaning they had already gotten dressed and left. It amazed her how fast the pups could suit up for their rescues. She ran out, hoping she could still catch them. To her dismay, however, all of them were long gone. She jumped into her roadster, turning the key, but nothing happened. She looked at the front and saw a patch on the front, confusing her, but she only had one conclusion. "You sabotaged my roadster too?!" Sighing, she knew she deserved it, and jumped out of her vehicle, dashing after the PAW Patrol as fast as she could._

* * *

"Wait, we don't have EMP patches, though." Rocky said. "I thought those were only in the PAW Patrol Z universe."

"Actually," Ryder disagreed. "After the time she made those robots out of armor, I thought I should equip you with EMPs. They're in patch form so they don't affect your equipment. It was going to be a surprise, but now's a better time than any." Rocky's eyes lit up, excited to have a new gadget.

"Cool!" he shouted. "Thank you, Ryder!"

"No problem, Rocky." He said, turning his attention back to the screen.

* * *

 _Sweetie ran for a full twenty minutes, hoping she could catch up in time. She knew she didn't have a lot of time and ran as much as she could, not worrying about her fatigue. She ran across the bridge, getting across to the castle. She ran inside, ignoring the servants' gasps and the Earl calling her. She ran past the princess' room, where she would probably be sleeping, and out the back of the castle, hurrying to where she knew the secret entrance to the base was. She saw the Mission Cruiser parked nearby, indicating they were already there. She dashed inside, following the path through Dusk's base. Finally, she came upon the first activated trap: a cage that fell from the ceiling, holding the PAW Patrol inside. Chase noticed Sweetie coming up behind him and slammed against the cage, trying to claw at her._

" _I will get you for this!" he shouted, still trying to reach her._

" _Chase, heel!" Ryder called, making him back up._

" _I tried to tell you," Sweetie said, panting from her intense run to the base. "But you all throw me in a cell, sabotage my vehicle, and run off before I could, it tends to be difficult. There's a password for each trap in the lair." She walked closer to the cage and was trying to remember the password to lift it, before she realized something that made her face pale. "Where's Marshall?"_

" _The cage missed him, so he wan ahead." Zuma answered. "He said he'll find a way out of here." Sweetie's eyes widened and ran ahead, only being able to run from the leftover adrenaline from the way to the base. Down the hall, she saw the Dalmatian walking forward onto a stone tiled floor._

 _Sweetie barked out her suction cup gun and attached it to Marshall's helmet, just as he took a step onto the floor. She planted her paws and yanked back, pulling Marshall back just as a spike had launched from the wall right in front of his snout. Yelping, he jumped back, pulling his paw off the tile and the spike retracting. Sweetie dropped, exhausted from the long run to save her. Marshall saw that and pulled his helmet off his head._

" _Arf! Hydro Launcher!" he shouted. He shot water into the helmet, creating a small bowl of water. He offered it to Sweetie, who quickly drank from the helmet, only slightly gagging at the temperature. "Sorry. The Launcher heats up the water to 130 degrees, so it can more easily cut through materials. If my helmet wasn't made of titanium, it would have eaten right through." Sweetie drank the water regardless, thankful for anything that could rehydrate her throat. Once it was all gone, he put it back on his head. "Sorry about not trusting you." He apologized, head hanging down. Sweetie smiled, showing she didn't hold a grudge._

" _It's okay." She said, accepting the apology. "I wouldn't have trusted me either." The two laughed, turning toward where the others were still trapped. Marshall took a look at the trap behind them._

" _No offense, but your dad is crazy." He commented. "That's a really dangerous trap to have in his house."_

" _He didn't make it." Sweetie responded. "He just moved in since it was the one place he pictured no one would look for him. This is a really old temple from before the founding of Barkingburg." Marshall nodded, understanding the sense in his plan. The two made it back to where the other pups were, still stuck in a cage._

" _Passcode: Hopscotch." Sweetie called. There were beeps seemingly from nowhere and the cage lifted from the pups. As soon as it did, Chase charged at Sweetie, ready to pin her down again. She braced herself, expecting to be tackled against a wall. However, Chase was stopped. Marshall intercepted him and tackled him, sending both to the ground._

" _Stop, Chase!" he shouted, struggling against the stronger pup. Chase, realizing who he was fighting, calmed down, keeping his guard up against Sweetie. "I think she's on our ride for real this time."_

" _Marshall, don't be a fool." Rocky said, watching Sweetie with the same intensity Chase was. The others glared as well, although not as intently._

" _I thought she was on our side already." Chase agreed. "Then I ended up tazed and in a jail cell."_

" _With open doors." Marshall pointed out. "And all our gear just outside."_

" _I don't care about her excuses." Chase said stubbornly. "For all we know, that was meant to lead to another setup."_

" _For what?" Sweetie interjected, making five pups growl. "I had all of you at my mercy, but I chose to let you go. I had nothing to gain from working with you anymore." Rocky, Chase, and Marshall were pretty stubborn, while the others were torn on their decision. Chase turned his head to Ryder, knowing he would give the final decision. The sole human had thought about this heavily for a moment, then sighed._

" _We came in here and were trapped within two minutes." He recapped. "We had to be saved by Sweetie. In the end, we have no choice but to trust her if we're going to catch Dusk." The pups had uneasy looks, yet Marshall was smiling. "However, this is your last chance. We've let you put us in danger enough times. Next time, we'll be alerting the princess to your crimes. I doubt even she'd be forgiving after this." Sweetie whimpered, knowing he'd be correct. Chase growled and let Sweetie pass him._

" _Lead the way." He said, not taking his eyes off her. She passed him, slightly terrified of the much bigger pup. She knew he wouldn't attack her uselessly, so she was somewhat safe for the time being, but could still feel his gaze watching her. The group walked, having an unsteady peace between them. It was almost silent, the only sound coming from Skye._

" _Why do you suddenly trust her?" she asked Marshall, who didn't respond. He had a slightly fearful look on his face, though. "Marshall?" She grew nervous, unsure of why the dally wouldn't say anything. Then something in front of them visibly caught his attention. She looked forward, seeing a stone-tiled floor in front of her. Finally, Marshall spoke._

" _She got me out of that mess." He said vaguely. "Don't step on the wrong tiles." Skye looked at the floor, cautiously putting her paw forth, before Sweetie stopped her._

" _That one wouldn't be good." She said. "Only about twenty of them are safe. I memorized which ones they are." To demonstrate, she picked up a stick and pushed down the tile Skye was about to push, making a large spike protrude from the wall._

" _You have to walk thwough those evewy time you talk to youw dad?" Zuma exclaimed, surprised._

" _Yeah, but there's an easy way to do it." She looked up at the ceiling. "Passcode: Airwalk." Suddenly, a metal bridge fell down from the ceiling. It arched over the tiles, expanding over to the other side easily. "Dusk might be a psychopath, but he's not daft." She crossed the bridge fearlessly. "He tried a wooden plank, but it kept bending and pushing tiles." The other pups crossed too, not wanting to activate the trap. Once they were all across, the bridge raised automatically._

* * *

"Why didn't Marshall just cut through the cage with his Hydro Launcher?" Rubble asked.

"It was probably made with titanium." Ryder guessed. "Titanium is heavily resistant to corrosion. A high-pressure water cannon would run out of water cutting through the bar."

"I can see that being plausible." Rocky said. "But if that cage was put there to secure an ancient temple, shouldn't it be rusty? It seemed brand new."

"I don't know." Ryder admitted. "Maybe Dusk put that one in. It isn't really possible for the ancients to have voice activated traps."

"So, she's lying again." Chase pointed out, growling inaudibly.

"Not really." Rubble argued. "She only said her dad didn't make the spike trap. Which would be really cool if it weren't aimed at Marshall." The other pups nodded, agreeing.

* * *

 _The pups had passed numerous traps, including spring loaded arrows, trap doors, quick sand, and what vaguely resembled a trash compactor._

" _Okay, how did an ancient civilization make a trash compactor?" Rocky complained._

" _By being clever." Sweetie said, not really knowing herself. "I've wondered a lot how they build these traps and I still don't have an answer." Rocky grumbled, not talking to Sweetie. Although it was expected, Sweetie still felt some type of pain from being ignored. It hurt especially from Rocky. She didn't know why. Maybe because he was the only pup to call her a friend. And she betrayed him. She sighed, knowing she deserved the scorn and the feeling of guilt. They came to a long empty hallway, which made Sweetie freeze. The other pups stopped too, fearing whatever was in front of them. "Have any of you seen a movie where there's a giant rolling rock?" The PAW Patrol all nodded, having seen similar movies to that. "Add giant spikes on it and that's what we'll face if we trip any of the wires down this hall." Gulping, they all walked carefully and saw the wires Sweetie was talking about._

" _Okay, I can do this." Marshall said to himself. He stepped over wires and watched his back legs, making sure they didn't hit it either. The others were doing the same, but given Marshall's history, he had been the most nervous. Sweetie could see his anxiety and walked closer._

" _You can do this, Marshall." She said. "Didn't you win the award for best firepup?" Marshall looked at her confused, unsure how she could know about that. "It was on the telly and all the princess would talk about for days."_

" _We're on TV?" Rubble asked._

" _You didn't know?" Sweetie asked. "You're on the news all the time. When Everest joined, it was worldwide news the first time she rescued someone."_

* * *

"Is that true?" Everest asked Ryder, who was on his pup pad.

"Yeah. We're all over the internet." He clicked a link. "The local ones report every time we save a cat from a tree. Worldwide, they thought it was extra cool when we got the Air Patroller."

"We're famous?" Skye said, slightly fearful. Ryder nodded.

"Why haven't we seen any papawazzi?" Zuma asked. Ryder shrugged.

"You'd think that would attract tourists every now and then." Chase commented.

* * *

 _Distracted momentarily, Rubble accidentally hit a wire. Whimpering, he could hear something break relatively close by, almost like a piece of wood snapping._

" _Please tell me no one else heard that." Sweetie begged rhetorically. They all started to hear a rumble from the direction they came from. "Run!" All seven pups and Ryder started to sprint down the hall, hearing the boulder starting to reach them. Suddenly, Marshall tripped over his feet, making the other pups gasp, yet they didn't stop running. They wanted to stop but couldn't. The boulder had already went over Marshall. There were tears starting to be shed from the PAW Patrol, even Sweetie, until they heard something from the other side._

" _I'm good!" Marshall shouted, trying to be heard over the boulder, surprising all the pups. "Lay down flat and avoid the spikes!" The pups all thought he was crazy but knew they could trust Marshall. Chase, being the first, jumped back, facing the boulder. Sweetie followed suit and jumped below the rock. The other pups were nervous, yet still did the same. Ryder jumped forward and turned on his back. As the rock passed over them, they saw that the rolling boulder was held up from the floor by the huge spikes, which were spaced widely across. The canines swerved out of the way accordingly, seeing where the spikes were going to go. Gasping for breath, they rose to their feet._

" _In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to put spikes on a rolling ball." Rocky commented. "For many reasons."_

" _Really, they'd probably make it harder to roll." Ryder agreed. They could now proceed calmly, not having to worry about the ball that almost crushed them all. Sweetie was still visibly shaken up, frightened on how close she came to being killed. Looking around, she saw the PAW Patrol was relatively calm in comparison._

" _How are you all not frightened?" she asked. "We almost got killed by a giant rock."_

" _It's not the first time." Chase answered, looking forward. "And it won't be the last time."_

" _We're a rescue team." Marshall said. "We risk ourselves a lot for others."_

" _If we let each one affect us," Skye added, also not deterred, "we'd never get anything done." Sweetie looked at the PAW Patrol with newfound respect._

" _I wish I could brush that off as well as you." She said. "What does it feel like to be used to it?"_

" _We're not." Rubble said, confusing Sweetie._

" _Being used to it would be just as bad as turning into a wreck every time there's danger." Rocky said. "We'd end up getting careless. Last time that happened, Chase had a bad fracture on his leg falling off a cliff."_

* * *

"I needed it." He admitted. "If I didn't fall, I probably would've gotten a lot worse later on." The other pups looked at him in surprise. "What?"

"You just admitted to your own arrogance." Skye pointed out, making him scowl.

"I'm not that bad!" he argued. "I just know when I mess up and that was one of my big ones."

"Chase, you're my best friend, but you got way too careless that mission." Marshall pointed out. "If you hadn't been arrogant, you would have stopped before that happened." Chase grumbled.

"Fine, maybe I can be arrogant." He admitted. "Let's just stop pointing it out."

* * *

" _After a lot of experience, we use near-death to trigger paranoia." Ryder said. "If used wrong, it'll end up getting the better of you. If used right, it helps us notice little details that we otherwise would have missed." Sweetie found it interesting. It didn't really hit her until now that the pups in front of her have much more experience than her. They had been through a lot before she met them and had still gone through more afterward. She had never felt more inferior than when she walked down a tunnel with them. Seeing the slight unease Sweetie was experiencing, Rubble walked next to her._

" _Are you okay?" he asked quietly. "I know the ball was scary. If you need, I can get the others to wait a moment."_

" _It's not that." She admitted. "I'm just starting to wonder if I ever had a chance to beat you when I was against you. Your leaders are all clever. You have amazing gadgets and equipment. And what's most important is how well you work as a team. I'm outnumbered and you all work together perfectly. On top of it all, you're much more experienced than me." She had a downcast expression, making Rubble feel bad._

" _We might have experience, but your training and skills are still amazing." He complimented. The terrier whimpered, not believing him. Rubble continued. "Take Chase, for example. He's the longest-serving member of the team. He's the most experienced, yet you got the better of him using only a toy mouse." Sweetie nodded, knowing what he said was true. "The last time, it took all seven of us, plus two others to finally catch you after chasing after you halfway across the world. You're good enough to rank as our most challenging enemy."_

" _I might have skills." She admitted. "They're a very particular set of skills, though, meant to be used for thieving. I was raised and trained as a master thief. I act as one a lot. I don't think I can be anything else."_

" _You used them earlier to save me, though." Marshall argued. "You used your gadget to pull me back right before I got impaled."_

" _You saved us a bunch of times." Zuma agreed. "Twap doows, auto-cwossbows, and a cwushing ceiling." Sweetie smiled. She had saved them a lot. Even if it was only because she knew the lair so well. Yet there was one fact that she had to acknowledge._

" _It does feel good to be a good guy, for once." She admitted. "But I can't let go of one crucial fact." The PAW Patrol looked at her, wanting to hear what she had to say. "I'm a thief. Not because I was raised as one, but because I enjoy it." The pups were watching her, confused. "I might not be evil, per se, but it's just too much fun being the bad guy sometimes. I love the rush, the thrill of the chase, being able to outsmart anyone who wants to stop me. I love the game, even if I'm not great at it." She sounded like she felt guilty for a moment. "I can't stop being a thief. That much is certain. And I don't know where any of us will stand after we put my dad in prison." The team was silent for a moment, before Chase stepped forward._

" _After we defeat Dusk, we'll be going back to Adventure Bay." Chase said. "And if you steal the crown again, we'll come and get it back." Sweetie whimpered, not meeting the Germans Shepherd's gaze. "After all, it wouldn't be a very fun game without another team against you, now would it?" Sweetie looked up, surprised to see her rival smiling. "We may have said it before, but this time let's agree on this. We're friends now." He extended his paw. The terrier looked at it, before looking at the other pups behind him. Skye's tail was wagging, hoping she would accept. Marshall was looking at the paw, knowing how hard it was for Chase to declare someone a friend suddenly. Rubble and Zuma stood at either side of Chase, almost begging her to agree. Ryder stood with Rocky, arms crossed and watching the scene play out in front of him. Rocky himself, however, seemed to be indifferent, just wanting to go forward. Sweetie still got a strong sense of guilt every time she looked at him. While the others seemed willing to forgive, he seemed to not let himself. Sweetie knew there was only thing to do._

" _I'm sorry." She said. "I can't do this yet." She pushed Chase's paw down to the ground, surprising the other members. "I've betrayed all of you. I can't be your friend until all of you have forgiven me." The other pups looked around, not sure who she was referring to. Until they all noticed Rocky walking down the path. Unsure what to think, most of the team continued walking, except for Chase, who pulled Rocky back out of earshot._

" _What's your problem?" he whispered harshly. "I know she messed up, but we have to give her another chance."_

" _This'll be chance number five, Chase." Rocky pointed out, keeping his voice low. "I thought we already were friends. Then she locked us in a cage and tazed us all." Chase was about to argue, but Rocky continued. "The time before that, she pretended to be pupnapped, took the air patroller, and we chased her around the world. The time before that, she chased us out of the castle with robotic suits of armor. The time before that, she stole the crown and_ framed _you. Yet you just invited her to treat that all like a game." Chase opened his mouth to argue, but no sound came out. He thought about it for a moment and had to admit Rocky had a point. "We can't just waive her actions every time she seems to be acting good. For once, one of us need to be cynical about the entire thing. If it's not you, then I'll do it."_

" _Rocky, I'll be the first to admit that I get tired of her antics." Chase said. "But we've seen firsthand how good of a pup she can be. She can change."_

" _Chase, I'm not going to give someone the benefit of the doubt when all they do is stab me in the back a minute later." Rocky sighed. "She's a thief. And all she knows is stealing. She can't ever change." He looked at his leader to see a look he'd never seen before on him. It portrayed feelings in between anger and disappointment._

" _At some point, ask Marshall about Swift." He said. "Tell him I told you to." Chase separated from Rocky, walking with the rest of the pack up front, leaving Rocky by himself._

* * *

"Who's Swift?" Zuma asked.

"I don't know." Chase answered. "Might be something exclusive to that universe."

"Do you think they'll reference people we don't know often?" Marshall asked.

"It's possible." Rocky answered. "Infinite amount of universes, infinite people, infinite origins. I'm just wondering how all of us end up coming together, no matter how we started."

* * *

 _Sweetie started to walk next to Chase when he walked next to the group, although kept her voice down. "Why_ do _you trust me?" she asked curiously. Chase wasn't surprised. He knew Sweetie had exceptional hearing and had been trailing behind to listen in. Chase debated for a moment, thinking on how to answer._

" _Trust is a strong word." He said. "I mostly just understand what you mean. The rush, the thrill, I know why it's fun. When I'm chasing bad guys, it's mostly about them breaking the law. They've robbed someone, assaulted someone, or done something even worse. I want to make sure they're behind bars. Yet there's a part of me that wants to let them get farther from me. A part of me that wants to get farther so I can chase them for a little longer. The adrenaline can be intoxicating. Which is why I have to make myself remember that it isn't a game, no matter how much I view it as one. One slip-up, one wrong turn, even a piece of trash getting in my eyes for a moment, I can get cau-" Chase stopped himself. Sweetie was confused a bit, wondering why he cut himself off. Finally, Chase continued. "I mean, the perp can get away." That didn't sound like what he was going to say originally, but Sweetie decided not to pry. She felt as though she hadn't deserved it. Chase looked Sweetie in the eyes. "I'm not going to pretend the way you sold us out isn't wrong. I just believe you aren't beyond redemption." Sweetie was surprised, hearing her biggest rival on the PAW Patrol say something so nice. Feeling a bit awkward, she secluded herself from the group, walking ahead of all the other pups, letting her focus on her own thoughts._

* * *

"Hey, Chase, how _did_ you end up on the PAW Patrol?" Rubble asked, making the German Shepherd cringe a little. For a few moments, he didn't say anything, creating an awkward silence between the pups. Marshall was the only one of the pups who knew anything about what he would tell him, and that's only because Chase felt the need to tell him.

"My dad was a police officer in Detmold." He said. "He wasn't just any K-9 officer, though. He was one of the best there was. He could outrun anyone, was adept in pup-fu and tail-kwando, and even led a mission resulting in the arrests of almost an entire gang in one night. He made Sergeant in record time, thanks to that.

"Then the last two members of that gang he arrested ambushed him on his way home from work. One quick knife and I lost my dad." Chase kept his head down, not looking at any of the other pups. "I didn't know what to do after that. Later, I met a human who told me he worked with my dad on a couple cases. Told me that I could either be adopted, live a relatively normal life, and go on without any worries, or I could join his program. I could become a police pup, fight to take down the bad guys, and do everything I can to ensure no other pup loses their father. Obviously, I became a police pup. I moved on to become a member of the PAW Patrol. Now I can honor him by saving everyone I can." The pups stayed silent, not really knowing what to say. Chase pointed at the TV. "Needless to say, that Chase probably has a different story."

"Maybe in that one, you were part of a dog-gang in the past or something." Marshall commented.

* * *

 _Marshall walked next to Sweetie, who only glanced at the pup._

" _I talked to Rocky." He said. "I can understand why he's being cold right now." Sweetie nodded, not wanting to respond. The walk alone made her think about her actions. She could only feel guilt now, regretting her actions._

" _I considered you friends." She said. "You helped me with the fire when I was scared. You trusted me all the way through and I throw you pups in cells. He has every right to be mad."_

" _He can understand too, though." Marshall interrupted. "He doesn't exactly have the best relationship with his father." Sweetie listened, expecting Marshall to explain. "I can't really tell you anything about it. That's his story. All I can say is he'd been where you are at one point, doing anything to get his approval." Sweetie pouted, really curious about Rocky's past, but respected the mixed breed's privacy._

" _I really want his forgiveness." She declared, looking back at the grey pup. "I betrayed all of you, but I think he took it the hardest." Marshall was confused a little._

" _Why would he take it any worse than the rest of us?"_

" _I don't know. I want to know as well."_

* * *

"How dense can the two of you be?" Skye complained, watching the TV. Rocky stayed quiet, knowing what she meant.

"What?" Marshall asked.

"It's nothing, Marshall." Everest said, stopping Skye.

* * *

 _Marshall looked back at his teammate, who seemed conflicted heavily._

" _I know he's being stubborn right now, but he'll come around." Marshall said, trying to encourage Sweetie, who walked with her head down._

" _Maybe he shouldn't." she argued, surprising Marshall. "I know most of you have forgiven me, but do I really deserve it? How do we move forward from my actions? How can we act as though it didn't happen?"_

" _We don't." Marshall said. "We can't pretend it never happened. It happened no matter what we do in the future. We acknowledge it, we move on. Because that's the only way we learn from our mistakes." The wisdom coming from the spotted pup surprised Sweetie. He can be dorky most of the time, but when he gets serious, it's a sight to behold._

" _How do we move on, though?" Sweetie asked, wanting more words of wisdom._

" _One paw in front of the other." He said calmly, disappointing Sweetie for a moment. "Listen, you can regret it all you want. It won't change anything. Instead, take that regret and make amends instead, the way you're doing. The way you've_ been _doing." Marshall stopped and put a paw on Sweetie's back, stopping her as well. "Stop moping about screwing up. I do it a lot more often. Just get up." Sweetie thought about his words, knowing he's right. She looked behind her and saw the rest of the PAW Patrol standing there, smiling at her. Grinning back, she had made a decision._

" _I won't do it again." She promised. "And I'll work to be worthy of the trust you've given me." She walked forward, feeling a newfound confidence in herself. She felt something on her foreleg, however, which made her pause. She looked down and saw a tripwire, painted the same color as the rest of the cave for camouflage. Suddenly, she heard a beep above her and saw a gun moving on its own, aiming at her. She did not recognize the device in front of her. Clearly, it wasn't made for the temple and had been added by Dusk. The beeping grew more frequent, signaling it was ready. Suddenly, she felt herself getting shoved and heard a whistle as the gun fired. The shot missed her by an inch, just sailing over her head. She was relieved before she realized why it missed. She looked back and saw a dart_ _embedded in Rocky's shoulder._

* * *

 **Yeah, I know I said I would finish this in one chapter, but then it ended up getting longer than I wanted it to. I could tell it would go be at least twice this long if I kept going, which would be four or five pages more than I want to make the max on these stories. Besides, it's been a while, so I felt that I should post** _ **something**_ **. Anyway, next one, I'm ninety-nine percent sure will be the final chapter of Sweetie's Mission PAW arc.**

 **Originally, I was going to have the trap target Marshall and have Sweetie take the shot for him, but I felt this way would work better.**

 **Let me know how I did with this chapter. I do like receiving feedback, constructive or positive. Haters will be ignored. Or made fun of. I like making fun of haters.**

 **I would like to still receive suggestions for more chapters. I've got Rocky's question planned, but I need something for Skye, if anyone has any Skye focused stories for me to write.**

 **One last thing I should mention is that I'd like to thank mokocchii for allowing me the reference to** _ **PAW Patrol Origins!**_


	8. Sweetie's Redemption

**Okay, so it's been longer than a week. I'm not really as sorry about that as I should be. I still got this out in a decent time. I've tried my best to make this conclusion to a three-chapter story end organically instead of being forced. Not sure if I even succeeded in that. If you've rushed my next chapter at all, I blame you for that if I didn't get this ending right.**

 **Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

The team looked at the screen, having a hard time believing what they'd just seen. Rocky, who seemed to be acting like Sweetie was a plague, had pushed her out of the way of a poison dart.

"Rocky, come on." She said. "You can't die yet."

"I'm not dying." Rocky said. "Even that Rocky wouldn't die like this."

"Wocky!" Zuma shouted, hugging his friend. "Please don't die on me anytime soon."

"I'm not the hugging pup, Zuma." Rocky lightly pushed his friend off. "I'll try not to, though."

"Do you think he'll live, Marshall?" Skye asked, worried.

"It depends on the poison." Marshall said. "If it was cyanide, we can't do anything."

"How would you know what kind it is?" Rubble asked.

"Depends on the symptoms." He said. "Let's let the ARW play and find out." The team quieted down to watch the screen.

* * *

 _Rocky looked at the dart that hit him, a needle lodged firmly in his shoulder, and looked at the other pups. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, he started vomiting, facing away from the other pups._

" _Rocky!" they all shouted, running over to the mixed-breed. Sweetie stood frozen, unable to comprehend everything that happened at once. After a moment, she broke from her stupor and tried to join the rest of the team, but Chase stopped her._

" _Back away!" he shouted, getting in between the two. Sweetie was taken aback. She did as told and took a few steps away. Chase glared at her, growling. The other pups watched, unsure what to do. Marshall examined Rocky, trying to figure out what was on that dart. "Why didn't you warn us? Why did you let Rocky get shot?!"_

" _Chase, I-" she said, trying to defend herself, before Ryder cut her off._

" _Chase, heel!" Ryder commanded, making the German Shepherd stand down. "Yelling at her isn't going to solve anything." He looked at Sweetie, who wasn't sure what to do. "Why didn't you mention it?"_

" _I've never seen it before." She said. "Last time I was down here, that gun was not a part of the system._

" _How do we know that?" Chase demanded. He may have stopped yelling, but his voice was no less accusatory._

" _Stop it, Chase." Rocky commanded, having recovered enough to speak. "The gun was aimed for her. It was my choice to take the shot." Hearing this, the German Shepherd calmed himself down. Rocky puked again, the poison taking effects. Passing Chase, who dropped his anger and watched his friend, who sat down, feeling his knees weaken._

" _Rocky, this is important." Sweetie said, worried. "Dusk only uses three different poisons. I need to know anything you're feeling right now." Rocky thought about it and stretched out his front leg a little._

" _My toes are numb, if that helps." He said, trying to wiggle the toes on his paw. Sweetie nodded and barked out her claw arm. She lightly grabbed a pinch of Rocky's fur and pulled it, letting out a considerable tuft of fur._

" _Do you shed often?" she questioned. When Rocky shook his head no, she sighed. "Thallium. It's slow and painful. We have the antidote in the infirmary." She started walking down the path, the others following. "Ryder, you're going to need to carry Rocky."_

" _I'm not that weak." He protested, walking on his own paws, before Ryder picked him up and put him on his shoulder._

" _But you have poison in your blood." Marshall argued. "You can't move too much or you'll let it spread."_

" _Besides, this will make you weak." Sweetie warned. "The longer it has to spread, the slower the antidote will work." She walked faster, keeping an eye on everything around her, so she didn't trigger any traps. Marshall walked next to her, trying to keep up._

" _Are you sure it's Thallium?" he asked, looking at Rocky. "Thallium symptoms usually take longer to pop up."_

" _My older sister, Savvy, is a chemist." She answered, keeping her eyes forward. "She played around with Thallium to make a lighter version that spreads faster but takes longer to do permanent damage."_

* * *

"This Savvy pup sounds intewesting." Zuma commented.

"You just like the fact that it's female." Everest commented. "Still, she sounds pretty skilled. To be a chemist who makes her own poison is probably difficult."

"And dangerous." Ryder added. "If she mixes chemicals wrong, she could accidentally turn her skin cells into plant cells." Rocky shuttered. Ryder may have made that up, but the thought still horrified him.

"That would be scary." He said. "I'd have a lot of water dumped on me every day."

* * *

" _Your sister?" he asked, which she nodded to. "You mentioned your siblings before. Why haven't we met any of them?"_

" _Mainly because I usually work alone when we meet." She answered. "You'll probably meet Aldin, at the very least tonight."_

" _Aldin?" Zuma asked._

" _He's Dusk's best student." Sweetie said. "He learned everything my father had to teach him and even learned Chewdo."_

" _Chewdo?" Marshall asked. "That seems a bit… hard for Terriers."_

" _That's because he's not a Terrier." Sweetie said, still focusing on the road ahead. She didn't have to look at Marshall to see his confused expression, so she continued. "We grew up together like siblings, but I only share blood with my younger sister. The rest are orphans that Dusk picked up when they met him."_

" _You're an orphan?" Marshall asked, eyes widening._

" _It would make more sense. But me and my sister are the only ones who are his daughters." She growled. "If he does something like this to any of you again, I might be an orphan by the end of the night, though." Realizing what she just said, her ears fell flat. "Sorry, I didn't mean…"_

" _Anger's natural." Chase said, walking next to her, head hanging low. "I'm sorry about what I said before. We kind of agreed to trust each other and I kind of attacked you. Again."_

" _I would have, too." Sweetie said, waving it off. "I'm not going to be held back by self-doubt anymore, but I don't feel like I've earned your trust yet."_

" _It doesn't give me the right to blame you for things you didn't do." Chase argued, effectively ending Sweetie's argument. "Any of us could've clocked that trap. I should've seen it, even. I just lashed out at you because-" Sweetie cut him off._

" _Don't worry about it. Save Rocky. Stop Dusk. Then sort out details." Sweetie's determination took Chase aback. He wasn't expecting her to suddenly become so focused. Realizing his apology didn't fully matter to her, he backed away, walking next to Skye instead._

" _Kind of cold." Rubble said, taking his place. "He just wanted to apologize."_

" _I appreciate it." She said, looking back at Chase. Her gaze shifted, seeing Rocky on Ryder's shoulder. "But Rocky took that shot, which was intended for me. Right now I can't think about anything but helping him and stopping Dusk." They finally approached a staircase at the end of the hall. It was amazing how long it was. "Okay, through here is the door. We have to be quiet in here. Once we're through, the infirmary is going to be the first door on the left. Marshall will take Rocky there, while the rest of us confront and apprehend Dusk."_

" _What will we be facing?" Chase asked, standing in the middle of the group. "What will he have?"_

" _My siblings might be in there." Sweetie responded. "That would be a problem. Although besides Aldin and Aegon, they won't be very tough."_

" _How many are there?" Rubble asked, behind Chase._

" _Let me count." Sweetie said. "Dusk, Aldin, Myra, Aegon, Savvy, and Arsene. Six will be in there." She turned to Ryder. "I know I said he should be carried, but it's only forty feet to the infirmary. He'll be fine until then. We'll need you helping to even out the numbers. Aldin and Aegon are really strong and adept in martial arts. Myra and Savvy are-"_

" _Sweetie." Rocky interrupted. "I know you want to help us, but while you were talking, I used my radar scanner to check their positions and there's no one in there."_

" _What?!" she exclaimed in response. She ran and tackled the door open. Indeed, the base was empty. It seemed to have been occupied recently, as they could smell the recently used gas for the stove. Sweetie ran through all the doors, unsure as to why her family wasn't there. "Where is everyone?" Ryder and Marshall proceeded to the infirmary, which is exactly where Sweetie said it would be._

* * *

"Okay, that was unexpected." Ryder said. "All that build-up to how tough they were and not one of them are in sight."

"At least it means it'll be easier to treat Rocky's poison." Marshall said. "I'm not a war doctor. The pressure might get to me."

* * *

" _Where's the antidote at?" Marshall called._

" _It's in the cabinet on the left." She answered, still running around the fortress. "It's labelled, 'Prussian blue'." Ryder looked in the specified cabinet, examining all the different bottles. One of them was labelled "Thallium", making it appear they kept their poisons mixed with their medicine. Finally reaching the Prussian Blue, he pulled it down, making a slip of paper fall as well from under it. He gave the vial to Marshall, who barked out his syringe, and picked up the piece of paper. He read it over, his eyes widening and called Sweetie into the room._

" _You might want to sit down for this." He warned, handing her the note. She did as was told, taking a seat next to Rocky, and read the note._

" _Sweetie, I hope you've realized by now that I don't want you here." She read aloud. "You've been nothing but a string of disappointments since you were born. Always whining about not getting enough attention, then neglecting your training when moving into the castle, then failing time and again to steal a simple crown." By this point, tears were starting to form in her eyes. "I thought that sending you down a river far away would get the point across, but you never seem to learn_ anything. _You brought the PAW Patrol with you, thinking that it would make up for anything. I could've captured them at any time if I wanted to. The seven of them in a cage will make my plans a little easier, though. As a thank you, I've left the antidote to the poison here. I'll be taking my leave from this city tonight. If I see you again, though. I won't only poison you." By this point, tears had flown freely from her eyes. "If there's any doubt, you are no longer my daughter." She dropped the letter, staring down at the floor._

" _Sweetie," Rocky said weakly, trying not to freak out about the needle he was about to be injected with. "Are you okay?" She sniffled, trying to regain her composure._

" _I'll be fine." She answered, trying not to sound too broken up. "I had already stopped considering Dusk my father a little while ago. I just…" She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "It's different seeing it in writing. It's like it makes it official. And that dart was meant for me. He actually tried to poison me."_

" _I know it's not my place to say," Rocky said, rubbing the shoulder where he was injected with the medicine, "but Dusk seems to be kind of…" He trailed off, trying to find the right words. Suddenly, she grabbed him, wrapping him in a hug. Rocky was surprised. Feeling a bit of moisture on his good shoulder. Slowly, he wrapped his paws around her as well, realizing she needed a hug._

* * *

"Not a hugger, huh?" Skye teased.

"It's different, there." He defended. "That was a really messed up note to find."

"Excuses." Chase said, teasing Rocky further. The mixed-breed looked at him with a mischievous look.

"Remember that time, Chase-" he said, before he was cut off.

"Okay, enough teasing." Chase said, quickly. He didn't know what Rocky was going to say, but felt he needed to stop it. He knew too much for Chase to not be careful.

* * *

" _I know, Rocky." Sweetie responded. "I know what you mean. And I've known for a while now what kind of dog my father is." She stood up, crestfallen, before suddenly widening her eyes and gasping. "If he's not here, he'll be putting his plan into action!" That made the other three at attention._

" _Hey guys." Rubble called from outside the door. "I found another exit down here." The occupants ran out the door, Ryder still carrying Rocky since the medicine hadn't fully taken effect yet. Rubble, using his construction skills and knowledge of geology, quickly figured out where they were in terms of the island. "Judging by how this tunnel goes, it looks like it goes straight to the castle from here." They followed his voice and there was indeed a tunnel._

" _Great, let's go." Marshall said, running into the tunnel, confusing Rubble and the other pups._

" _Sweetie's guessing that Dusk is trying to steal the crown right now." Ryder explained, making the other pups gasp._

" _But how are we gonna stop him?" Chase asked._

" _Out of this cave, then we plan." Sweetie declared, running through the newly discovered exit. The others followed as well._

 _The tunnel ended at a wall of bricks, about four feet across. Unsure what else to do, Sweetie pushed the bricks, expecting them to be loose. An entire section of the wall moved, clearly meaning to act as a door. Once she was through, she looked around, partially recognizing where they were._

" _We're in one of the lower basements." She declared, trying to discern which one they were in. They would all look the same, however, until she left the room. She waited for all the pups and Ryder, who had a hard time getting through the small opening. "I think the best course of action is to split up. Skye, Dusk is already hijacking the Air Patroller. Stopping it is something you must do. The rest of us have to divide and surround Dusk, along with whoever is with him." Ryder was taken aback, unused to not being the one in charge. However, he didn't see any fault with her plan, so stayed silent. They ran out of the basement though the single door in the room, a staircase conveniently close by. Once they were at the top, the castle started to appear more familiar._

" _I'll go this way!" Skye called, running toward the back door to where the Mission PAW Cruiser was parked. The rest of the PAW Patrol had run toward the throne room, where the crown would be waiting._

* * *

"Why is Sweetie taking command?" Rubble asked, confused. "She doesn't have any leading experience."

"She has good instincts, though." Ryder countered. "And she knows Dusk better than any of us."

"She can make some good strategies too." Rocky added. "She's stolen the throne and took over half the monkey kingdom in a single day."

"Then there's her resourcefulness," Marshall commented, "Remember when she had us all running around the castle looking for Chase?"

"And improvisation." Skye said. "Throwing the bowtie over the edge to keep us all from paying attention to her was quick thinking."

* * *

 _When the team got to the throne room, the team was relieved to see that the crown was still in place behind a security forcefield, sitting right next to the throne. However, they saw a familiar clamp drop from above, through an open window, and pick the throne up. Rocky, acting on instinct, jumped on the throne, trying to stop it._

" _Rocky!" Ryder called, trying to stop his pup. It was too late though, as the throne was already too high up for the mixed breed to jump from. Ryder called Skye on his pup pad, trying to warn her of Rocky's actions. "Skye, Rocky's on the throne and it's just been stolen."_

 _(Skye's sky cycle)_

" _I hear you, Ryder." She responded from her sky cycle, hovering right below the Air Patroller. She spotted the claw coming up, carrying the golden throne with Rocky on it, who seemed to be slightly frightened. She moved below, hovering just in front of the chair. "Jump on, Rocky!" He smiled, glad she was there, and jumped onto the sky cycle._

" _Thanks, Skye." He said, keeping close since the sky cycle was small._

" _I guess I've got some help." She commented, trying to find a way on the Air Patroller._

"I've opened the backdoors to the Air Patroller." _Ryder said._ "It should be easy enough to get in since I made your sky cycle faster. Just be careful."

" _Copy that, Ryder." Rocky said, looking at the open doors to the Air Patroller._

 _(throne room)_

 _The ground team looked around, not seeing any indication that Dusk had arrived yet. Remembering his head start, Sweetie realized they didn't have much time. Thinking quickly, she formed a solution in her head._

" _Okay, I've got an idea on how to keep Dusk from stealing the crown." She said out loud, gaining attention from the rest of the team. "I need you to bear with me on this one… We steal it first." She expected some sort of angry reaction, thinking the team would dismiss her claim as one to steal the crown for herself. Or at least disapproving glares. She did not expect them all to ponder the idea._

" _If we move it to the Mission Cwuiser, it's extwa safe." Zuma agreed._

" _It's only common sense to keep the target out of sight." Marshall added._

" _Besides, Dusk doesn't know we've escaped yet." Ryder said. "He'll still be coming here for the crown without any thought of it being guarded."_

" _I kind of expected you to take that the wrong way." Sweetie said, interrupting their train of thought._

" _If you were going to steal it for yourself, you wouldn't have told us." Chase said. "Keeping your cards on the table is a good way towards trust." He walked over to the security panel behind the wall. "Besides, I'm pretty sure your main goal at this point is just to beat Dusk." Sweetie stopped him from entering codes._

" _The earl changed the codes last week." Sweetie warned. "I may have… snuck a peak at them."_

" _You spied on him?" Chase asked, getting a reluctant nod from Sweetie. "Good. You deactivate the system, I'll get the crown out of here." He walked to the pedestal, waiting for Sweetie to unlock the forcefield. She punched in the codes, allowing Chase to grab the crown. Before he could, though. They had all heard a commanding voice._

" _Don't move." It ordered, from behind the doors. Dusk came in, wearing a pup pack with a large gun on top._

 _(Air Patroller)_

 _Rocky and Skye landed safely in the back of the Air Patroller. Disembarking the sky cycle, Rocky ran to the back and closed the doors manually, keeping them safe from the draft._

" _Okay, all we have to do is get to the cockpit and take control of the plane." He said to Skye, who also jumped out of the sky cycle. Before she could respond, however, a glass vase had come down on her head from behind her, knocking her out. "Skye!" Rocky ran to his ally, before realizing something. He saw a Shetland Sheepdog, standing there with a broken piece of the vase in her paw. She was also wearing a pup pack, mint green in color. Rocky clicked his pup tag, calling "Ryder, we're not alone up here."_

"We're not alone down here." _He responded._ "Dusk is here." _From that point, communications were cut off temporarily._

" _Hello." The Sheepdog greeted. She looked at Skye, who was knocked out from the vase. She threw the last shard she had across the room. "Sorry about that. She'll be fine in an hour. Well, except for the bump she'd have on her head."_

" _You're lucky Chase isn't up here." Rocky responded. "Who are you?"_

" _I'm Savvy." She answered. "I work all the engineering for my dad."_

" _Savvy?" Rocky said, remembering Sweetie say the name. "I thought Sweetie said you were a chemist."_

" _I'm also an engineer. And a pilot. I do all the inventing, pretty much."_

" _You created that dart gun in the caverns, then." Rocky said, remembering the poison that he was injected with._

" _Again, sorry about that. It wasn't meant for you. We saw you struggling in the cameras." Rocky noted the mention of the cameras, since it meant that they were being watched the whole time. There wasn't any way they would have had the element of surprise._

" _I know it wasn't meant for me. You tried to poison your own sister."_

" _I didn't know it was meant for her either." Savvy defended, backing away from the mixed-breed. "When I asked why we were setting it up, dad said it was to 'keep out unwanted intruders'. When we found out he did that to Sweetie, we couldn't stand that either."_

" _Yet here you are, stealing the throne for him." Rocky said, gesturing to the rest of the ship._

" _If there's one thing we all respect that he's taught us, it's to never leave a job half-finished." Savvy answered, ready for a fight. "It's a good thing you're still weakened from the poison. Otherwise, I don't think I'd ever be able to beat you." Rocky readied for a fight._

" _You can't beat me anyway. I can't let my team down." He rushed toward the smaller pup._

* * *

"I guess that's respectable." Rubble said. "Quit and as a professional courtesy, don't leave the last job unfinished."

"Rubble, stop giving praise to the bad guy." Rocky said, partially in a pretend-whiny voice. "It'll raise their morale." The other pups laughed.

* * *

 _The pups were frozen, Chase almost having the crown in his paws. "Back away and stay quiet." Dusk ordered. Chase did as was told._

" _We meet again, Dusk." Ryder said, looking at the thief. Dusk turned toward him._

" _Fire cannon!" he shouted. The gun on his back spewed what appeared to be fireball, aimed at Ryder's feet. On contact, it flared up, making Ryder back away. "I said stay quiet. Next time, I won't miss." Two more pups came from behind him, neither wearing a pup pack with the fire cannon. He noticed the wandering eyes toward his back and grinned. "Like it? It's the prototype fire cannon. Sweetie and Savvy designed it. Although I'm pretty sure it was mostly Savvy." Sweetie said nothing, making the other pups curious. They looked at her and saw her shivering, clearly scared of the weapon. "Nothing to say, Sweetie?" He turned the device toward her, making her even more frightened. "Yeah, whatever you say would probably be a waste of oxygen, anyways."_

" _Don't talk about hew like that!" Zuma shouted, suddenly, making all the others look at him. Dusk turned, aiming the gun at him, but Zuma didn't care. "I don't cawe how evil you are! She's a living being and desewves wespect!"_

" _She sold you out for almost nothing." Dusk pointed out, not flinching._

" _I don't cawe." Zuma responded, bot budging. "I may have been angwy befowe, but she's leawned. She wan twelve miles without stopping to save us. She wefused to leave us alone, even though we thweatened hew. She helped Wocky with that poison you infected him with. She's made mistakes. I'm past them."_

" _We all are." Chase agreed, stepping forward. The other pups and Ryder stepped forward too, standing against Dusk, who started chuckling._

" _I hope that's great comfort when you're burned to pieces." He said, readying his fire cannon. "Well-done puppies, anyone?"_

" _Father," Sweetie interrupted, slowly stepping forward, making him stop for a moment. "I've opened the crown's case for you. I've made this an easy steal and trapped and humiliated the PAW Patrol a second time." The team listened, unsure what to think. She couldn't really be selling them out again, could she? "I know I've been a disappointment, but I've gift-wrapped everything you've wanted for you." She walked closer, hoping to appease Dusk. "I know I've been a failure of a daughter in the past, but I hope this makes up for it." She smiled to him, who smiled back._

" _I do have the crown and the PAW Patrol in front of me." He agreed, looking past her at the four pups and human at his mercy. "It is truly an accomplishment to be proud of. Sweetie, by this point, stood right in front of him._

* * *

"She double-crossed us again." Chase declared, not believing what he saw on the TV.

"Calm down, Chase." Ryder said.

"I don't entirely blame her." Marshall said. "That cannon's pretty scary."

"Guys, let's try to have faith here." Skye said, giving Sweetie the benefit of the doubt. "We should watch how this plays out."

* * *

" _Can I please rejoin the family?" she begged. "I can't stand being without them."_

" _I can acknowledge this a great achievement." He responded, while Sweetie stood next to him. "And you're good at taking credit for_ my _achievements." He swung his leg at Sweetie, who swiftly ducked below it and tapped his belly in response. He kicked her in the face with his other front leg before she could do any more damage. "Fire cannon!" He aimed the cannon at her… which did nothing. Confused, he shouted it again. "Fire Cannon!... Fire Cannon. Fire Cannon. Do something, damn it!"_

" _EMP Patch." Sweetie said, getting up. She had bit her lip when he kicked her, making blood trail down her muzzle. "Just needed to get close enough to shut off your gun." He looked down, looking at his belly and saw what appeared to be a sticker stuck to the bottom of his black suit. "Like it? I borrowed it from Rocky since I thought I'd need it."_

* * *

"Told you!" Skye shouted, cheering for Sweetie's trickery.

"Okay, I jumped to conclusions too quickly." Chase said guiltily.

"I still wouldn't have blamed her." Marshall said. "That cannon is really scary. And he just said he was going to barbecue us."

"Let's just be happy that isn't the case." Everest said, enjoying the show.

* * *

" _That… was clever." Rubble complimented. "For a second, you had me going." The other pups cheered, agreeing that it was a slick move. Dusk, however, was growling._

" _Aldin! Aegon!" he called to the two dogs behind him. The two pups, although they were probably old enough to not be considered pups anymore, stepped forward. Aldin, the older of the two, was an Australian Shepherd, standing a head taller than Chase. Aegon was a St. Bernard dog, around the same size as Aldin. "Beat them. Beat them to an inch of their lives. All of them." The two took steps toward the PAW Patrol, but stopped when Sweetie stood between them. "What are you doing?! Do as I say!"_

" _But Sweetie's stopping us." Aegon protested._

" _She's against us. She's stopping us from finishing the job. Show no mercy." Aldin slowly raised a paw, ready to hit Sweetie, who didn't move. She looked him in the eyes and waited. Sighing, he stopped._

" _We can't do it." Aldin said. "Anyone else, it's no problem. Sweetie's our sister and we will not touch her." Dusk growled, annoyed with his comrades._

" _Fine. I'll take care of her myself." He rushed past them and swatted Sweetie to the side, moving her out of the way. "Deal with the others." They barked affirmatively and charged at the PAW Patrol. Sweetie, getting to her paws, saw Dusk coming, who had taken a swing to hit her. She dodged under and headbutted him in the muzzle, sending him back a bit. He recovered quickly and jumped on top of her, pinning her down. Sweetie barked out her suction cup gun, getting him off of her back. He was still next to her, however, and hit her in the face, making her recoil a bit. Before she could recover, he bit her arm, piercing through the skin. Sweetie bit his ear, going for a painful spot to make him let go. It worked, freeing her from his jaw. Luckily, he hadn't severed anything important, making it possible for her to stand, although painful on her leg. "You actually_ can _fight."_

" _I've learned chiaotzu-jitsu with the princess." Sweetie responded. "I'm not weak."_

" _Good." Dusk said. "No daughter of mine can be weak."_

" _I'm no longer your daughter, Dusk." Sweetie said, readying to pounce on the older terrier. "I'm with the PAW Patrol. And I will stop you!" She jumped, attacking him._

 _With the rest of the team, Marshall and Chase were doing their best to stop Aldin, who was much stronger than he appeared, while Ryder, Zuma, and Rubble did whatever they could to stop Aegon, who was even stronger. Chase jumped on top of Aldin, who grabbed his paw with his jaw and threw him off. Marshall kicked at his jaw, but he dodged and headbutted his exposed stomach, sending him back as well. Chase got up and swiped at his paws, but Aldin moved out of the way and grabbed him by his suit with his teeth, throwing him against Marshall._

" _Sweetie wasn't kidding." Marshall commented. "He really does know Chewdo."_

" _What do we do?" Chase asked in a whisper, getting off of his friend._

" _The main strengths of Chewdo is his grappling and throws. However, his openings will be easy to exploit. Follow my lead." Marshall charged at Aldin, who tried to grab for him. Marshall dodged left, though, making Aldin lean toward him. Once he did, Chase struck from the left, getting a few good jabs in at his left side, making Aldin flinch. Aldin swung his paw at him, trying to get him away. Once he did, Marshall took his chance. He planted his front paws and kicked Aldin with his back paws, spring kicking him off balance. Taking advantage, Chase swiped at one of the two paws that remained on the ground, knocking him on his back. He barked out his paw cuffs and locked them around all four of Aldin's paws._

* * *

"We're still the ultimate tag team." Chase said, putting up his paw for a high-paw, which Marshall returned.

"We'll beat you one of these days." Rocky said, Zuma behind him.

"Maybe Skye and I can get the best of you." Everest said, the cockapoo nodding.

"We'll try and see tomorrow." Chase said. "If you're up for it." All the pups had confident looks, knowing they'd have a good sparring match.

"Why don't I have a tag team partner?" Rubble asked, feeling left out.

"Tracker would be, but he's nowhere around." Skye said.

"Besides, you're pretty strong on your own." Marshall pointed out. "What you lack in skill, you more than make up for in brute strength." The bulldog was happy with the compliments.

* * *

 _Aegon used his strength to beat his opponents. Rubble's and Zuma's smaller stature made them easy to push around, while Ryder couldn't grab at him too easily. Aegon charged and hit Ryder's legs, knocking him off his feet. Rubble had tried to tackle him from the side, but Aegon was too fast. Zuma, being faster, had managed to tag him, but Aegon pushed him away, the attack doing nothing. Ryder used his taekwondo skills and kicked at his side, but the St. Bernard dodged away. Zuma jumped on top of him, being the only one fast enough to catch him. Aegon tried to fling him off, but Zuma held on. Rubble used this chance. He tackled the bigger dog, keeping him off balance while Ryder had managed to slap one cuff of his own paw cuffs on the biggest dog. Rubble kicked him again while Ryder pulled at the remaining cuffs, getting the dog off his paws. Zuma and Ruble pinned him down while Ryder secured the cuffs, keeping the dog from being able to walk. He saw that Chase and Marshall had finished with Aldin as well and looked toward Sweetie, who was pinned down by Dusk. The team moved to help her, but something happened that stopped him._

"Ryder!" _Rocky's voice called from his pup pad._ "Get out of the throne room!" _He answered his pad._

" _What's going on?"_

 _(Air Patroller, five minutes earlier)_

 _Rocky pushed Savvy back, knocking the smaller sheepdog against the wall. Savvy stood back up, barely affected by the attack. Growling, she jumped back up._

" _Arf! Boxing gloves!" she called out. Two claw arms, both wearing boxing gloves, extended from her pup pack. She charged at Rocky, who was slightly surprised by the weapon of choice. He didn't have time to think on it, however, as when she got closer, the gloved arms had swung at him. He dodged by them, avoiding the punches barely. He tried to attack before they were ready again, but when he got close, Savvy punched at him with her actual paws. Distracted, he didn't realize the arms were swinging at him again, taking an attack from his side, pushing him against the doors to the cockpit. He yelped, having hit the doors extra hard, and fell onto the floor. Shaking his head, he looked up and saw Savvy getting ready to hit him again while he was trapped between her and the door. Thinking quickly, he pushed the button to open the door and backed in, narrowly dodging the attack._

" _Arf! Claw arm!" Rocky called, his pup pack extending a claw. Savvy jabbed at him with her boxing glove, but Rocky dodged. Before she could react, he grabbed the boxing glove with his claw arm and pushed it away, creating an opening on her left side. Taking his chance, he punched her with his paws. It may have only been a few quick jabs, but it was enough to knock the smaller pup off-balance. She recovered quickly though, and glared at Rocky, who smirked. "I might be poisoned and on medication, but I'll still win."_

" _We'll see." Savvy responded. She stepped forward while swinging, putting extra power in her strike. Rocky caught it again, but this time, while he had one arm in a grip, the other boxing glove extended, hitting the claw arm in the joint, snapping it off. Rocky backed away before she could do anymore damage. He looked at his broken metal appendage, feeling a little distraught at one of his most important tools._

" _You'll pay for that." He promised, glaring at Savvy. He charged at her, seemingly in a blind rage. Before she could hit him, though, he called out another tool. "Arf! Jo staff!" Another claw arm popped from his pup pack, this time holding a staff, about twice as long as Rocky's height. The arm twisted, turning the jo staff to bounce away both arms. Savvy, realizing he was about to hit her, put up her paws defensively, but Rocky let go of his staff, pushing away her paws with the claw arm. Taking full opportunity, he punched her directly in her chin, making her bounce away. She fell back on the control panel of the Air Patroller, knocked out from the decisive blow. He was about to check on Skye, until he heard a digital voice talk._

" _Crane disengaged in ten seconds." It said, making Rocky panic. If the crane was disengaged, that means that the Air Patroller is about to let go of the royal throne. They were still stationary above the throne room, meaning the throne is about to fall on his team. He clicked his pup tag three times to signal to Ryder that his message was urgent, making the pup pad answer his call automatically._

" _Ryder!" he shouted into his tag. "Get out of the throne room!"_

"What's going on?" _Ryder asked._

" _The Air Patroller is about to drop the throne. We're still above you."_

"But it's made of solid gold." _Ryder said_. "It probably weighs about five tons,"

" _Yeah, now move!" Rocky called, trying to stop the countdown, but Savvy falling on it must've damaged the controls. There was nothing he could do from up in the Air Patroller._

* * *

"I know this isn't the thing to focus on right now," Marshall said. "But that was a pretty good fight."

"Thanks." Rocky said.

"It's even more impressive that you had poison in your system still." Everest added.

"I did what needed to be done." He said simply. "And she just hurt my friend. I was pretty determined."

* * *

"Yeah, now move!" _Rocky's voice shouted. Ryder looked all around. Sweetie was still struggling with Dusk, but the rest of the team had heard Rocky's message. Aldin and Aegon were watching him, expecting him to make a move._

" _Everyone, get out of here!" he ordered, grabbing Aegon's cuffs. He was a bit heavy, but Ryder managed to pick him up, thanks to Rubble's help. Aldin was dragged across the floor, teamwork between Chase puling him, with Marshall and Zuma pushing him. They had left the room, when Ryder realized something. Dusk had still been fighting with Sweetie, who had managed to escape. "Sweetie, Dusk, stop and get over here!" They both snapped out of their anger, realizing they were the only ones still in the throne room, and ran toward them. They were too late, however, as the roof had collapsed before they had made it ten feet. Sweetie panicked, dodging large chunks of stone as they came down. The throne had broken through, hitting the floor at high-velocity as well. She moved out of the way, but another brick was about to fall on her. She didn't have time to move, so instead closed her eyes, not wanting to face it. She didn't feel the brick hit her, however, as she was pushed out of the way. She looked up and saw Dusk above her. Before she could say anything, the floor collapsed, already broken from the throne landing on it with incredible force, along with the rubble from the ceiling. Sweetie and Dusk fell through the hole it created, dropping into the lower levels of the castle._

" _Sweetie!" Chase yelled, trying to jump in there before a pair of paws stopped him._

" _Don't!" Aldin said, holding back the Shepherd. He used the chain around his paws to wrap around his legs, effectively stopping him. "You'll only get yourself hurt." Ryder wanted to argue, to send Chase in there to recover their friend, but knew Aldin was right. Until they were certain the building was stable, it wouldn't be wise to go in. He got a beep on his pup pad and opened it. He saw Rocky, who seemed relieved that he had answered._

" _Ryder, you got out." He said. "Is everyone okay?" Ryder didn't answer, unsure how to tell the mixed-breed. "Ryder… is everyone okay?" Ryder finally spoke._

" _Sweetie was still in the throne room." He finally said. Rocky's communication shut off._

 _(Castle Basement)_

 _Sweetie had been knocked out, presumably from a small rock hitting her in the head. She woke up, looking around her, recognizing this as one of the castle basements. Chunks of stone and cement surrounded her, evidence of the collapse of the throne room. The hole she fell threw was small, and seemed to go a long way up. It was a miracle that the only injury she sustained was a bump to the head._

" _That wasn't part of the plan." A voice said from the top of a pile of debris. She looked up and saw Dusk sitting up there. Growling, she jumped to her feet, glaring at him._

" _Why did you save me?" Sweetie demanded._

" _Getting crushed in a collapsing castle isn't a good way to go." He answered, not turning his head from the roof. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone."_

" _But thallium poisoning is alright?" She barked out her suction cup gun and attached it to the rock Dusk was sitting on. She planted her paws and pulled it hard, making him come down. "Sliced by claws is alright?! Drowning in a river is alright?!" Dusk grunted as he fell down the cement pile, landing close by Sweetie._

" _You wouldn't have died from the thallium. I knew you would've made it to the medicine cabinet before you died."_

" _I don't want to hear your lies anymore!" Sweetie yelled, punching Dusk, who didn't stop her. She hit his jaw, knocked him back a few feet. "Everything I did, it was for you. And you've only expressed disappointment in me." Dusk stood to his paws and only looked at her." Sweetie punched him again, but this time he blocked it._

" _I didn't want you to do anything for me." He said, punching her in the side. "You just kept coming back to me, no matter what." He pushed her back, knocking her off her paws. "I've only tried to break you down and you keep pushing to stand next to me. I openly attacked you and threw you in a river. You gave me the PAW Patrol in return, whom I didn't need around when I got the crown. I tried to_ poison _you and here you are, at the bottom of a broken castle with me." Sweetie got up, having bit the inside of her lip when she fell, and spit out some blood._

" _If it's any consolation, I'm through following you." She said. "I will no longer work for you, Dusk."_

"Dusk _? No more calling me father?"_

" _You've expressed desire for me to stop being your daughter. And you poisoned one of my friends. You got what you wanted. You're no longer my father and I'm no longer you're daughter." She tackled him, trying to knock him down, but he stood strong. "Arf! Claw Arm!" The pup pack extended her claw arm, hitting Dusk in the side of the head. "Now I'm Sweetie, royal pup who will defend the castle from you." She barked out a set of paw cuffs and placed them on Dusk, who was too dazed to stop her. When his eyes refocused, he saw the cuffs and jumped at Sweetie, but tripped over the chains. She looked at him coldly._

" _Congratulations, Sweetie. You beat me." He rose up and sat down, trying to get comfortable. Sweetie sat across from him, hoping for rescue. The doors to the basement they were currently in were blocked by the rubble, effectively sealing them in. The two didn't speak for a while, probably about fifteen minutes of awkward silence._

" _Why didn't you want me?" Sweetie finally asked. "What did I do that was so bad?" Dusk didn't answer, opting for silence. "I mastered thievery, all the tricks you taught me and even implemented a few of my own."_

" _You were never in it for the thievery. You didn't care about stealing or the money, you just wanted to be praised. It was a drive, but the wrong drive that could get us in trouble." Sweetie stared at him, not believing his words._

" _Aegon and Myra never cared about stealing. They only cared about the rest of us."_

" _And Myra refused to partake in this heist because of you, whereas Aegon, Savvy, and Aldin are leaving afterwards. They said that if I were so easily willing to throw you away, I could do it to any of them. Really, I think they just want to stick with you." Sweetie was a little touched by their loyalty, but didn't show it._

" _What happened to Arsene?" Sweetie asked._

" _He went searching for you after I chased you in the river. He even ditched his tag so I couldn't track him."_

" _You let Arsene go on his own?!"_

" _I didn't know he was gone until over two hours later." Dusk defended._

" _I don't care!" Sweetie was in a rage. "He's the youngest one of us. How could you let him get away?" Dusk said nothing. "Why am I even surprised? You've never cared about any of us, why start with him?"_

" _I care about my children." He said weakly._

" _Stop lying! Who are you trying to fool? You trained us all to use as your own small army. You tried to kill me. Twice. You abandoned Arsene! You're a terrible father, which makes sense because you never cared about any-"_

" _STOP!" Sweetie was about to ignore him and continue, but saw him shed a tear. "I trained you to keep you safe. If you don't believe me, ask Aldin later. I have a dangerous job and I don't want any of you to get hurt. You…" Dusk paused for a moment, trying to recollect himself. "You mastered everything I taught you. You invented your own techniques and improved that pup-pack I gave you extremely. I have always been proud of you. I had faith you could keep yourself safe, but when you were adopted by the princess, it made me think."_

" _About what?"_

" _How safe you actually were with me." He turned away, not wanting to face her. "In the three heists you enacted trying to get the throne, you've fallen out of your own plane to be saved by Skye. You were almost hurt by your own robotic knights. You were almost dropped out of the sky by a crow, fought against monkeys, and were held hostage in an ice castle by penguins. That's not even mentioning the heists you've pulled with me." He stood up, taking baby steps to avoid tripping over his chains again. "I had to chase you away, so I treated you even worse than I had before. Then I cut you with my battle claws. And even poisoned you. Yet here you are. In a broken castle with me."_

" _Your point?"_

" _I realized the life of a thief is not the life a young pup should live, especially when they have another option." He rattled the chains on the cuffs. "Otherwise you might end up like this. Or worse." He laid down on a flat rock next to Sweetie. "When the princess adopted you, I had a fantasy where she might take us all in and we could live a much simpler life. I realized, however, that I blew my chance a long time ago. I'm stuck on a life where I steal things to keep alive. I'm the best at what I do. You made a game out of it. It's still kind of fun for you. Me? It's never been a game. It's a bad way to live." He looked Sweetie in they eye. "I have no right to ask this of you, but once we're out of here, could you convince the princess to take the others in? They've only followed me in my endeavors, same as you." Sweetie was hesitant, but knew that she'd miss her family incredibly._

" _I'll work something out." She agreed. "I'll ask the PAW Patrol to find Arsene and bring him back as well." Dusk smiled._

" _I know I've been a terrible father, but you're an excellent daughter." He admitted, making Sweetie suspicious._

" _Do you think I'll take those cuffs off because of a few nice words?" she asked, deadpanning._

" _Sweetie, who taught you to pick locks?" he asked knowingly._

" _Yo-" Her eyes widened, realizing what he meant. He jumped up, throwing two cuffs on her front legs before pushing her onto her back. Once down, he slapped the remaining two cuffs on her back paws. She tried to fight it, but once the cuffs were on, they automatically tightened to fit the dog they attached to. Sweetie tried to pick the lock, but realized all the locks were jammed with pebbles. "I should've known that was all rubbish."_

" _None of it was rubbish." Dusk disagreed. "I really want what's best for you as a father. And I think that means you pups and I never meet again." He clicked a button on his collar. "Aldin, tell the PAW Patrol that Sweetie's safe. She's in Basement C." He pushed on a section of wall, revealing a secret door. The same one that she used to get into the castle in the first place. "I guess this Is it. I never said this before, but I love you, Sweetie. I'll always be proud of the dog you'll become, whomever that will be." Sweetie was silent as Dusk jumped through the secret exit, closing it behind him. Suddenly, she heard a rumbling from the other side of the basement. She thought the ceiling was coming down, as though the building wasn't stable She realized, however, that it wasn't the ceiling, but realized it was the wall. A drill had broken through the wall, making a decent sized hole in the wall. Rubble's mini-miner, the drill running to cut through the wall, had emerged with Rocky driving._

" _Hello, Sweetie." He said, making her relieved._

* * *

"All I'd need for that scene would be a sonic screwdriver." Rocky said.

"This is the longest we've gone without interrupting the ARW and that's what you say?" Everest complained. "And why would a screwdriver need to be sonic?"

"Why not?" Rocky countered, leaving the husky without a response.

* * *

" _You got any bolt cutters?" she asked, showing him the paw cuffs. "Dusk jammed the lock." Rocky walked over to her, barking out his welding torch._

" _Hold very still." He warned. "And close your eyes." His pup pack protruded a welding mask and activated the torch. Sweetie closed her eyes as told. The torch took a moment, but it melted the locks on the cuffs, making them easy to remove. He used his claw arm to remove them and throw them away. "Where's Dusk go?" She was about to answer, but collapsed before she got the chance. Rocky rushed to help her. She had fallen unconscious._

" _Sweetie!" Rocky shouted, shaking his friend. When she wouldn't wake up, he paged Marshall. "Marshall, we're in the basement where we came in. Sweetie passed out."_

"On our way, Rocky." _Marshall responded. Rocky looked to the terrier._

" _Please be okay, Sweetie."_

 _(Sometime later)_

 _Sweetie woke up in her bed, in the princess's room. She looked around, seeing the princess sitting in her chair reading a book._

" _Princess?" she called. "What happened?" The princess's eyes widened and she dropped her book, rushing toward her pup._

" _Sweetie, you're awake!" she shouted with glee. "Yippee!"_

" _A little unladylike of you." Sweetie commented._

" _You've been in asleep for twenty-seven hours. I'll be as unladylike as I please right now."_

" _Twenty-seven hours?!" Sweetie exclaimed. "Where is everyone?"_

" _The PAW Patrol are in the guestrooms in the east wing. Your siblings are in the west wing." Although, by now, they're probably roaming the halls or coming to see you. As she said that, there was a knock on the door. "Come in." The door opened, letting in Rocky and Ryder. The former's eyes widened when he realized Sweetie was awake._

" _Sweetie!" he shouted, tackling her in a hug. "You're awake!"_

" _I won't be for too long if you keep squeezing me." She quipped, acting as though she couldn't breathe._

* * *

"Not a hugger, huh?" Rubble teased, seeing the blush on his friend's face.

"I make exceptions." Rocky said, annoyed. "I think this would be one."

"You mean Sweetie being unconscious for a day or Sweetie waking up?" Everest teased. Rocky stayed silent, unsure how to answer that.

"Cut it out, dudes." Zuma said, stopping the teasing. "His cwush, his business."

"Thank you, Zu-. Hey!" Rocky said, hearing the last part. The other pups laughed at his friend's expense.

* * *

" _Sorry." He apologized with a blush and let her go. "When did you wake up?"_

" _Two minutes ago." She answered. "What happened? The last I remember, the ceiling broke in the throne room." Rocky and Ryder looked toward each other._

" _We don't really know." Ryder answered. "You and Dusk fell through a couple floors and landed in the basement."_

" _When I heard, I grabbed my flight pack and retrieved Rubble's mini-miner." Rocky said. "Then I dug a hole in the wall and you were bound in your own paw cuffs and Dusk was nowhere to be found."_

" _You're still grounded for that." Ryder warned. "You could have brought down the whole castle if you weren't careful."_

" _I know." Rocky complained. "I should've been thinking a little more."_

" _What about Dusk?" Sweetie asked. "Did you guys catch him eventually?"_

" _He's still on the run." Ryder answered. "We got two messages from him. One was to tell us where you were and the other was to let us know about Arsene."_

" _What about Arsene?" Sweetie asked._

" _He was travelling on his own down the river to find you for a while." Ryder answered. "I had Robo-dog take the Air Patroller to find him, along with Skye and Savvy."_

" _Is he okay?" Sweetie asked worried. Ryder nodded, making her relieved, before she was outraged. "How could Dusk let him go like that?! That was irresponsible."_

" _We know." Rocky agreed. "And we'll catch him eventually." Sweetie thought about that for a moment. The PAW Patrol had helped her so much in the past couple of days. She couldn't let them take on this burden._

" _No,_ I'll _catch him." She said, standing up. "He's my responsibility. I have to catch him myself." She thought of everything that Dusk was capable of and made another decision. She looked toward Ryder. "Ryder, sir, I'd like to join the PAW Patrol!" Ryder, Rocky, and the princess were all taken aback, but Sweetie was unwavering. She looked the human in the eyes and felt confidence. "I want to help people the same way you guys do. I don't know what I can bring to the table, but I'll do whatever it takes." Ryder thought about it for a moment._

" _I have been toying with the idea of creating another division of the PAW Patrol for a while, but I need more pups."_

" _If any of my siblings are willing to join, then they would be great additions as well." She informed._

" _I agree." Rocky said. "I've looked over Savvy's designs and blueprints and she's a great engineer."_

" _Thank you, Rocky." A voice said from the door, before some quiet shushes had happened. Ryder rolled his eyes._

" _Come in, pups. I'm sure you all have some things to say." He called. All five of Sweetie's siblings along with the rest of the PAW Patrol had entered. Marshall was wearing his EMT gear and barked out his thermometer, checking Sweetie's temperature._

" _I think these pups would be excellent rescue dogs." Chase said. "For example, Aldin and Aegon are both strong and fast, and they also have a good sense of loyalty." This surprised Sweetie, as the last memory of most of these pups together, they had been fighting heavily. A lot must've happened in the past day._

" _Aegon is really cool!" Rubble declared. "He played volleyball with Aldin, Skye, and me."_

" _And Savvy helped you fix the Aiw Patwollew." Zuma added. All the pups looked at Ryder expectantly._

" _Look, it's fine if they form a rescue team." He said. "But only if they really want to." The pups were confused before Chase spoke up._

" _Ryder's right. We all joined the PAW Patrol because we wanted to help people, not because a family member let us in." This made the pups understand. Aldin spoke up._

" _A lot has happened in the past couple days." He said. "We've gone from thieves working four our 'dad' to waiting for our sister to wake up from what I was starting to think was a coma." The other former-thieves nodded in agreement. "Everything's happened so fast and suddenly we're being asked to join a rescue team. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're going to need some time to think over everything going on."_

" _I guess that's fair." Ryder said. "It took me a while to decide to start this team."_

" _I'm in!" Savvy said immediately, startling everyone else. "I've always helped Dusk with my inventions and experiments. Only difference is this time I'm using them to help people in a different way." Sweetie smiled, glad to have one of her sisters by her side. This sparked a thought in her head, though._

" _Where are Myra and Arsene at?" She asked._

" _They're still asleep." Skye said. "Although Myra, Savvy, and I have a spa trip in a little bit to get to, so I'm probably going to wake her up."_

" _I want to see her later." Sweetie requested. "Perhaps after you three get back." Her stomach growled, making her realize that it's been over a day since she last ate. "Oh, excuse me, did I miss breakfast?" Everyone laughed._

* * *

"I guess it makes sense." Chase said. "She can't leave Barkingburg too easily, so her joining the PAW Patrol means a Barkingburg division."

"I do want to set up more teams." Ryder said. "The International Patrol was a good idea."

"Would we all end up leading our own team?" Chase asked. Ryder thought about it.

"Chase and Marshall would for sure." He answered. "I've yet to see the rest of you in leadership roles."

"I can be a leader." Everest declared.

"We're sure you can." Rubble said.

* * *

 _The PAW Patrol was getting ready to depart. They had spent too long away from Adventure Bay and needed to get back soon. Sweetie stood on the launch pad along with the rest of her siblings, seeing off their new friends._

" _When will you be back?" the princess asked, knowing her pup wanted to play with her new friends every now and then._

" _Whenever we have a vacation, we rotate between a few places." Ryder explained. "It'll probably be in a couple months." All the pups whimpered, sad that they made so many new friends that they won't see for a while. "You can call us whenever you like, though. Or even visit yourselves." This made all the pups cheer up instantly._

 _Sweetie caught Rocky's eye and waved him over to the far side of the helipad. The mixed-breed followed her over, not sure what to expect._

" _I was wondering something." She said. "Why did you steal Rubble's truck to burrow through the castle?" Rocky's eyes darted over to the bull dog, who didn't seem to mind too much._

" _I kind of did it without thinking." He admitted. "I heard you were in trouble and Skye had just woken up, so I took my flight pack and flew to the Cruiser to grab Rubble's drill. It wasn't very smart, in hindsight. I could've taken down the entire castle." He thought of something else. "I heard you took one of my EMP patches. When and why did you do that?"_

" _It was when I hugged you after reading that note from Dusk." She admitted. "I guess I felt a little more at peace stealing something. Sorry about that."_

" _It saved you in the end." Rocky said, forgiving her instantly. "You'll probably need a couple anyway if you form a new branch of the PAW Patrol." He looked toward the other pups who were Sweetie's family. "I hope they can all agree to help you."_

" _They'll come around to the idea eventually." Sweetie said. "I'll need them to. They'll start to help me. They'll stay to help others."_

" _What makes you so sure?"_

" _I've been with them for almost seven years. I know them pretty well."_

" _Rocky, it's time to go!" Chase called, seeing the two._

" _I'll be right there." He called back. He looked to Sweetie. "I guess this is-" He was cut off by Sweetie, who hugged him unexpectedly. Blushing, he hugged her back. When they finally let go, he looked her in the eye. "I'll see you later, Sweetie. Don't be a stranger." He walked over to the Air Patroller, but stopped. "I'm sorry about being so mean in the tunnel."_

" _I'm sorry about selling you out still." She responded. Rocky nodded, before stepping onto the Air Patroller. "Bye, everyone! Come back soon!" Her family barked in agreement._

" _Bye, everyone!" the team said together from the Air Patroller before the door closed._

* * *

The ARW shut off, leaving a lot of smirking pups at the mixed-breed.

"Yes, I'm not a hugger!" he shouted, making them all laugh. Once they all calmed down, they looked at the ARW.

"Who's next?" Marshall asked. "We only have Skye and Rocky left."

"If it's alright with Skye, I'll go first." Rocky said. The cockapoo nodded, letting him ask his question first.

"What are you gonna ask, Rocky?" Rubble asked, curious. The mixed-breed took a deep breath, unsure how to phrase the question. Finally, he chose his words.

"ARW, what would happen if I was stuck in a time-loop?"

* * *

 **Okay, that ends the Sweetie's Mission PAW trilogy. I feel like I made it too abrupt of an ending, but I didn't really know what to do with it to get all the major plot points in. Even if it's abrupt, it's still my longest chapter yet at over 10,000 words. It took a couple twists and turns, I ended up deleting whole sections of dialogue because I didn't like where it was going. Multiple times. I considered making a higher up bad guy that threatens Dusk to do what he did, but if I end up doing that, it'll be in a sequel or spin-off. If any of you are wondering, I did write in Sweetie's siblings since the beginning since I was planning to make them her team. Still, I probably could have done better with them, but I just wasn't sure how to do it. Tell me how I did, though. I like honest and constructive reviews.**

 **I'm still not sure what I would do for the time-loop. It'll end up being a disaster repeating itself over and over again. And if there's any references to a time loop movie or TV show you feel I should throw in, please let me know.**

 **Also, I try to edit this as much as possible, but it's a big chapter. If you see any major errors, please let me know in a PM and I'll fix it as soon as possible.**


	9. Loopy Rocky

**I've realized at some point that a time-loop story cannot be done in one chapter. At least not a full one. So, after giving it some thought, I started thinking about the point of view of someone else in the loop. And in the middle of a much later loop. I honestly feel like this will be a little disappointing, given how long some were waiting.**

* * *

Ryder pulled the lever as normal and sat down in his seat.

"What's a time loop?" Rubble asked.

"It's where someone is repeating the same day over and over again." Rocky answered. "It's really interesting how it can affect the mentality of a person."

"If by interesting, you mean scary, then I agree with you." Marshall commented. "They experience levels of hopelessness that no one could ever imagine."

"How bad could it be?" Skye asked. Marshall thought of a sentence that could annoy Skye.

"Imagine doing the same thing over and over again." He said. "Imagine doing the same thing over and over again. Imagine doing the same thing over and over again. Ima-"

"Okay, I get it." Skye said. She didn't fully understand it, but she figured she would from watching the video. Besides, she wanted Marshall to stop saying tha-

"Imagine doing the same thing over and over again. Imagine doing the same thing over and over again. And you can never get it to stop no matter what you do." Skye rolled her eyes, understanding better the point Marshall was trying to make. She turned her attention to the screen, the video finally starting. It started on Chase, waking up and walking toward the other pup houses, bringing his pup pack with him.

* * *

 _Chase was always responsible for waking the others up in the morning. He walked to Marshall's house, which was closest to his own. There were always two options for waking up when Chase knocked on your door. Chase knocked on the door of Marshall's pup house._

" _Marshall, wake up." He called through the door. A moment later, the door opened, revealing a drowsy dalmatian inside. He yawned. This was option one. Wake up at the first knock._

" _Good morning, Chase." He greeted, walking left to wake up Skye and Zuma._

" _Good morning, Marshall." Chase agreed, walking in the other direction. He knocked on Rubble's door this time, waiting for the bulldog to wake up._

" _Rubble, wake up. This is your one chance." Chase called, knowing this wouldn't work. He put his ear to the door and could still hear the light snoring. He sighed, knowing what this meant: option two. "Arf! Megaphone!" His megaphone emerged from his pup-pack. He spoke into it loudly, two inches from Rubble's door. "WAKE UP, RUBBLE!" He heard a crash inside the pup house and guessed that Rubble had jumped up, hitting his head on the top of his pup house. A second later, the door opened, Rubble emerging with a bump on his head._

" _Morning, Chase." He greeted, rubbing his head._

" _I'll wake up Rocky, then we'll meet for morning exercise."_

* * *

"Do you really have to do that every morning?" Rubble asked.

"I tried buckets of water, but then Rocky complained about the smell of wet fur." Chase said. "And pounding harder on your door didn't work either. If the megaphone stops working, I'll think of something else."

"I'd activate the pup house." Everest suggested. "if the engine doesn't wake them up, what would?" Chase wrote the idea on a notepad and everyone else glared at the Husky.

* * *

 _Rubble ran into the field for morning exercise, waiting for everyone else. Skye was already there, Marshall having woke her up. Chase walked over to Rocky's house and knocked on the door._

" _Rocky, wake up," he called, expecting the mixed-breed to wake up on the first try. When he didn't walk out, he was confused. Rocky usually woke up on the first try, having been traumatized enough from the buckets of water. He put his ear to the door and didn't hear any movement. He sighed and put the megaphone to his mouth. With one deep breath, he was ready to yell into the megaphone. Before he could, though, a grey paw turned the megaphone around, directing it at Chase._

" _Wake up, Chase!" Rocky spoke into it, startling the Shepherd. Chase fell back, not having expected Rocky to do that. Rocky, however, didn't really show any emotion to the fact that he'd nearly blown out Chase's eardrums. Angry, the Shepherd got up and was about to reprimand him, but before he did, Rocky spoke up, only barely being heard over the ring now being heard in Chase's ears. "Maybe next time I'll just throw a pie out the door. Reversing the megaphone lost its charm. Causing tinnitus gets boring after a while." He noted his leader in front of him, still on the ground thanks to his prank. "You know, it's really undignified for a leader to be on the ground like that." Chase looked down, seeing that he was still on the ground. He was confused by Rocky's mumblings, but he stood up and glared at him nonetheless. Before he could speak, though, Rocky continued in a monotone voice. "Rocky, what's wrong with you? You blasted a loud speaker right in my face and barely show any concern for it. Do you realize that you could have permanently damaged my hearing? What do you have to say for yourself?" By now, all the pups were nearby, having heard Rocky's prank, but Chase stood there, nearly dumbfounded._

" _How did you know the exact words I would say?" He finally asked, carefully watching the recycling pup._

" _It was obvious. Anyway, to answer your questions in order, I thought it would've been a decent prank, turning the tables on you for once, I do realize that, which is why I carefully controlled my volume to only cause tinnitus, and for what I have to say to myself, I've got nothing. You'd think I would have had a decent response by now." Chase looked at Marshall._

" _What's tinnitus?" he asked._

" _Do you have a ringing in your ears?" Marshall asked, which Chase nodded to. "That's tinnitus. It'll probably go away in a minute,"_

" _I've been studying lately." Rocky stated. "Anyway, morning exercise won't matter because we're going to be called to save Chickaletta from the top of city hall again in three… two…" Their pup tags rang, with Ryder's voice._

"PAW Patrol, to the lookout!"

" _Ryder needs us!" Everyone but Rocky shouted. What Rocky said confused Chase, and the police pup kept it in mind as he ran toward the elevator, Marshall and Rocky lagging behind._

" _Wait for me!" Marshall shouted. Chase saw a ball between the elevator and Marshall, and anticipated the crash, but before his friend could step on it, Rocky kicked the ball out of the way, keeping the Dalmatian on all fours. He made it into the elevator, no crash or dogpile this time. "Can't trip every time." The elevator raised up, and the PAW Patrol lined up in front of Ryder._

" _PAW Patrol, ready for action, Ryder, sir!" Chase declared._

" _Thanks for coming, pups." The big screen showed city hall, with a chicken standing on top of it. "Chickaletta ended up on top of city hall again."_

" _Poor Chickaletta." Rubble said, empathizing with the chicken._

" _Marshall will get her down with his ladder." Ryder announced._

" _I'm fired up!" Marshall declared._

" _Skye will be ready with her helicopter, just in case."_

" _Let's take to the sky." She called, doing a flip._

" _Alright! PAW Patrol is on a roll!" He slid down his pole, going to his ATV. Marshall and Skye slid down the slide and Rubble and Zuma got into the elevator, waiting for Chase and Rocky._

" _Are you two coming?" Rubble asked._

" _You two can go on ahead." Chase said. "I want to talk to Rocky for a minute." The two descended, leaving Rocky and Chase alone. Chase watched him, and was about to speak, but Rocky cut him off._

" _Code: Well that didn't work." He said, effectively stunning Chase. He tried to speak, hoping that it wasn't as it seemed, but it didn't seem that Rocky was going to declare it a joke. Finally, when Chase spoke up, he only had two words to say._

" _What number?" he asked cautiously. He kept the question intentionally vague, as if to verify information he'd just received._

" _I've lost count, but I think I'm in the late two thousands, right now." He said plainly._

" _Have you…" Chase said, wanting to voice his thoughts, but couldn't._

" _I got into my murderous and insanity phases around twelve hundreds. The suicidal phase was in the seven hundreds, after I ran out of stuff to do. Eventually, I just decided to spend my time reading books."_

" _So…"_

" _No, I won't be killing you today." Rocky said. "However, a pup-fu match isn't out of the question." After awkwardly chuckling, Chase finally managed to say._

" _So, you're in a time-loop, huh?" Chase had invented a secret code for if someone he knew was ever stuck in a time-loop. Granted, he figured he'd never have need of it, but some of the weird things he'd seen in Adventure Bay taught him to be ready for anything. This was one of the many unlikely scenarios he'd created in his head._

" _Yeah, I took a while to find out about your secret code. You gave me twenty test questions which were things I wouldn't possibly know the answer to unless you told me. Like the real story behind the chocolate incident."_

" _You won't tell Skye about that, will you?" Chase asked fearfully._

* * *

"YOU DID THAT?!" Skye shouted, tackling Chase from his spot. He got up before she could pounce again and backed away. "That dress was a birthday present from my grandmother!"

"I swear. I was about to clean it up, but you sat down before I could." Chase defended, before backing up further.

"Yet you couldn't warn us about it?!" Skye lunged again, trying to tackle him, but he shuffled out of the way and jumped down the slide, trying to run before he was caught. Skye jumped after him and ran down the slide. Ryder and Everest looked at all the pups, who sat down and waited for them to return.

"None of you are going to do anything?" Everest asked.

"She wasn't exactly nice about finding out who did it," Zuma replied, only glancing over to her, "I lost a suwfboawd, Wubble lost a skateboawd, and Wocky lost his tools. Chase can suffer."

"Okay, what actually happened?" Everest asked. No one had told her of this, and she didn't know any details.

"Trust us." Rocky said. "You don't wanna know. I'll just say it involved Skye's favorite outfit."

* * *

" _I did about eighty-two times." Rocky said. "And blackmailed you with it to tell me all the questions and answers that you'd give me."_

" _Don't tell me anyone else's secrets, though." Chase ordered. "Because-"_

" _Because for you, this isn't a time-loop, it's a normal day. You've given me this speech quite a few times. It held off all the dark phases of my psychology for an extra fifty loops, really, so good job. Anyway, I told you one of her secrets eighty-one times so it's only fair I tell you it one more time. I'll only do it if you ask me, though. And you'd definitely want to know." Chase gained a hopeful look and nodded. Rocky glanced around, making sure they couldn't be heard. "She's the one who ate the rare treats from Japan that your mom sent you."_

* * *

Chase glared at Skye, who was preparing to run down the slide.

"Oh well." He said, laying his head down.

"Oh well?" Skye repeated, not fully believing what she heard.

"I got over it the next day," he said, not sparing her a glance. "It's not worth bringing up old grudges." Skye now felt guilty for punching him in the eye now. "Sorry about the dress, though."

"It wasn't your fault. I should've been more mindful. Sorry about eating those treats from your mom." This only made Everest more curious, but she didn't question it.

* * *

" _Not what I was expecting," Chase admitted._

" _I know, but that look of hope I give you every time is still somewhat enjoyable." Rocky admitted. Chase grimaced._

" _Over seven years of-" Chase started, but Rocky cut him off again._

" _-of repeating the same day turns you into a douchebag." Rocky said. Chase was about to say something, but Rocky spoke up first. "I_ could _stop doing that, like you were about to ask, but what's the point? I have an eidetic memory and I remember every sequence of how this day can go. In one hour, thirty-two minutes, and fifty-one seconds, Daring Danny X is going to get stuck on the side of a cliff because of a snowboarding accident and we'll have to help him, unless Everest challenges him to a race and leads him down a different direction. In two hours, eleven minutes and five seconds, Alex will be on a rowboat floating in the middle of nowhere unless Rubble catches him in time and stops him from falling into the boat. Mr. Porter needs us to find out what happened to his delivery of ingredients and produce in three hours, eight minutes thirty-two seconds unless you and I meet the driver just outside of Adventure Bay to help him fix his truck. In three hours, twenty-one minutes, and forty-two seconds, Callie will be stuck in a tree and Marshall will have to help her. Honestly, it just saves time." He looked at a clock again and counted down. "Four… three… two… one… and the ringing is gone." Chase forgot about the ringing in his ear, and true to his word, it went away right then as Rocky was talking._

" _I know I've probably told you this before, but just because we might seem to be on a recording, it doesn't mean that we're not real. You might know what's going to happen, but to us, it hasn't happened yet. Try to remember that we're not disposable." Rocky didn't seem to be paying attention. He'd heard Chase's speech countless times and has every word memorized. Instead, he was looking over the balcony right now. He looked to his left and saw a butterfly on the railing._

" _You should've seen what happened this one time I scared that butterfly. It caused the power to go out in the whole town for three hours."_

" _You're exaggerating." Chase responded, trying to forget about how he'd been ignored._

" _A little bit. It was only two hours and thirty-seven minutes," Rocky admitted, "but I'm not making it up."_

" _I know." Chase agreed. "So, after we help that guy with his truck, what do you want to do?" Rocky thought about it a little bit._

" _It's been a while since I went to see Eternity Crusade. Want to see it with me?"_

" _Sure, why not?" Chase said. "I've only seen it twice. I want to see it again. BRING ME TITAN!" This made Rocky chuckle, the first bit of emotion Chase had seen from him all day. "So, what_ have _you done while you've been in this loop?"_

" _At first, I was going to invent time travel to get out of the loop, but apparently after a future version of me figured it out, he tried traveling three years back and ended up bumping into me. When I figured out it would be pointless, I didn't want to try anymore, which ended up erasing that me from existence. Then, I read all of Marshall's medical books. Took a mock practice test for a medical license and I can apparently qualify as a doctor"._

* * *

"I spend years studying medicine and Rocky learns everything I know in a day." Marshall said.

"I can't believe I invented time travel." Rocky said, awed.

"And then you didn't." Skye replied. "Your creation of time travel erased the creation of time travel." She looked at all the other pups, who seemed confused. "Good, that made as little sense to all of you as it did to me."

"Yeah, wouldn't that create a paradox?" Everest pondered, "which would in turn rip apart the timeline?"

"I pondered that in first grade, Everest." Ryder claimed, walking over to a white board and started drawing numbers on it. "But time is a cosmic force that cannot be touched through man-made means. Even if a paradox could affect it, the ramifications would be nearly inconsequential to the flow of the natural timeline. I've theorized that in the event, the timeline, as powerful as it is, would probably resolve the matters itself through some type of self-sustainment immune system, like being its own organism and ridding itself of a disease. It would require a paradox like the discontinuance of the sun to even cause the timeline to convulse if that were the case. To seriously upset it, whole galaxies would have to be erased from existence. And I'm pretty sure even that would be miniscule in..." Seeing Ryder ramble on about theories involving paradoxes, the pups figured it best to continue watching the TV.

* * *

" _But if you create time travel now, knowing now that it wouldn't lead out of the time loop, you could use the physics that you learn to understand the time loop. Besides, if you end up going back in time to hang out with past you, you have a buddy that-"_

" _Wouldn't exist." Rocky said. "It doesn't matter how I do it, going back in time to see myself just ends up destroying the new me. He's experienced everything I have, so it would still be boring for him, so he'd push me to something else, which would destroy him. And eventually, I'd end up having to go back in time because of it, leaving him behind. And even assuming the day repeats and he hasn't been erased, the day starts without him existing. It's like when I painted a perfect reproduction of the Mona Lisa, it wasn't there at the beginning, so it won't be there again." Chase looked at him confused, but since at the end of the day, it wouldn't matter, he didn't bother explaining it again._

" _I'm starting to understand why Marshall doesn't include time travel in his fanfiction anymore." Rocky's ears perked up._

" _Marshall writes fanfiction?" he asked, genuinely surprised that there was something he didn't know about his friend after all these loops._

" _I wasn't supposed to tell you that." Chase said regretfully. "He gets really self-conscious about it and doesn't let anyone read it except on the internet anonymously."_

" _I'm sure it's not that bad." Rocky said._

" _I wouldn't know. He doesn't let me read it and I don't know his pen name online." Chase said. "I only know about the time travel because he told me how he wrote one once and said that he kept contradicting himself since he didn't know how time travel should work."_

" _I'm honestly surprised that this didn't pop up sooner." Rocky said, trying to think of a single mention for Marshall writing fanfiction, but was only drawing blanks._

* * *

"Marshall, you write fanfiction?" Everest asked, curious more than anything. Marshall blushed, but answered regardless.

"I've written a couple stories. Nothing great." He said sheepishly. He didn't want to let his friends know about that particular hobby until he was better.

"What kind?" Rocky asked, curious now.

"One for Apollo, really. And this other one that's original."

"Can we read them?" Skye asked nicely, which Marshall shook his head to.

"If you really want to, I'll let you read them when they're done." He had always wanted to let someone read them, but he'd never been brave enough to do so.

* * *

" _Now I have something to do later." Rocky said mischievously. Chase nodded, glad he could give his friend something to do. Without anything to talk about, Chase asked about the one thing he was curious about._

" _So, you already had your insane/psychotic loops?" Chase asked, which Rocky responded to with a nod. "Mind telling me about them?" Rocky thought back to them._

" _Well, there was this one time with an anvil…"_

* * *

On the screen, an image of Rocky had popped up on screen.

" _Due to the violent nature of some of the murders in here, and the rating of this film, along with the younger age of certain viewers, I cannot let Rocky tell the full stories. Instead, there shall be brief descriptions cut up and put together. You may use your imagination."_

"This feels like a cop-out." Rocky complained. All the pups agreed but listened anyways.

* * *

" _You tested the splatter radius?" Chase asked, Rocky nodded. "Using an anvil, a big rock, and a vehicle?"_

" _Specifically, your rig. It wouldn't have been right to use Marshall's on you. It was disappointing though since the truck stopped most of the splatter. The anvil stretched the farthest. I thought about a guillotine, but I wouldn't be able to get you to stop screaming after it was over if I did._

* * *

" _So, then I found that while the flat side doesn't do as much for pressure, it's over for the victim a lot sooner than the sharp side of the pickaxe." Rocky explained, but thought about it for a moment. "But only if they're tied down. Otherwise they move too much."_

" _I'll chalk that up to murder tactics to know when I'm a full-fledged police dog." Chase said, taking notes. He'd started getting shutters, imagining the scene that Rocky had described._

* * *

" _Everest?" Chase said slowly. "With a Zamboni?" Rocky nodded. "Did you steal that from a movie?" Rocky nodded again._

" _Even yelled at her to tell me where the guy is or else." He chuckled. "As for why it was Everest, I was going for irony. Why else would I do the thing with the rocks to Zuma?"_

* * *

" _It got really difficult to tie him up without thumbs." Rocky complained, looking at his paws. "Once I got the hang of it, I tested if there was a variation of how he was on the tracks that he could survive through."_

" _How many ways did you test it?"_

" _Sixty-five," Sensing his next question, Rocky stopped him. "He survived once."_

* * *

" _You don't even wanna know what I did to Skye." Rocky said, avoiding the topic._

" _I'll take your word for it." Chase said, thinking of all the possible ways it could've gone. "Don't correct me if I'm wrong, but given her size, it probably involved a microwave."_

* * *

"I take it back." Rocky said. "My imagination and the allusion to those probably made it somewhat worse." They'd heard a muffled whimper somewhere and saw Rubble with his head under the beanbag to stop the sound.

"What do you think he could have done to me, Chase?" Skye asked fearfully. Chase thought for a moment and pictured Rocky stuffing Skye into a microwave. Then immediately threw the idea out of his head.

"I don't want to picture it too much." He admitted, just watching the video.

* * *

" _I never knew you could be so twisted." Chase commented, thinking of all the murders Rocky listed._

" _I probably wasn't yesterday." Rocky admitted. "Well, your yesterday, my seven years ago." Rocky thought back over the loops that he'd been through, but it was difficult to process them sometimes. He knew that he'd grown to be incredibly cynical over the years. It was just hard to stop picturing everyone else around him as… expendable. They felt less real, the longer he spent time with them. "I'm sorry about not being able to view you as real sometimes. It's just hard to remember that life around me isn't just some recording on a video tape anymore." Chase thought about it for a minute._

" _Well, I can't picture what you've been through, but we've got to go help the guy with the truck. Once we get back, want to talk about it?" Chase asked solemnly. Rocky pondered it for a moment. He'd been asked this by Chase many times and each of the other pups about half as many times, but he'd never taken any of them up on the offer. Maybe he should take them up on it._

" _Alright. Let's go deal with the truck first." Rocky said, walking up to his pup house. With a bark, it transformed into the recycle truck and waited for Chase to do so as well. When he was ready, he followed Rocky to where the truck would be._

* * *

"You know, I thought this would be more interesting." Rocky commented. Suddenly, an image of him popped onto the screen, looking annoyed.

" _You try finding a time loop that starts from the beginning, stretches through to the end, doesn't sound really choppy, and can fit within the allotted time frame, while it being exciting. It's not every day there's a natural disaster. Most days are just normal. Besides, I figured Chase's point of view would be interesting for this. Could you imagine a side character's thoughts while someone else is in a time loop?"_

Rocky disappeared from the screen.

"It could be worse." Chase said.

"You only say that because at least you're somewhat important." Rubble pointed out. "I've been a side character in each one of these. Even the one _I_ asked for."

"Yeah, that wasn't very fair." Everest agreed. "He died in the International Patrol, he wasn't in Marshall's. He lost his match in PAW Patrol Z, even if it was an impressive match. And he was kind of a side character in Sweetie's Mission."

"At least he _had_ a match in PAW Patwol Z." Zuma argued, annoyed that he'd never seen his own character fight.

* * *

 _The truck was an easy fix, with Chase putting traffic cones up while Rocky did a quick job replacing a tire. The driver was relieved at the "coincidence" that the PAW Patrol happened to be driving by when his tire popped. After they fixed it, they drove to the movie theater to watch the next showing of their movie._

" _So, tell me, what's bugging you?" Chase asked. They had an hour to kill, so they figured they'd spend time talking._

"… _I haven't called my dad." Rocky admitted, not looking at Chase, who was confused. "I've been trapped in this loop for seven years and not one time have I called my dad."_

" _Why not?" Thinking about it, Chase had never met Rocky's family, or even heard him mentioning his parents. "It's not like he's going anywhere." Rocky sighed._

" _About half a year before I joined the PAW Patrol, my dad had a stroke. It was relatively serious, and he needed special attention for a while. During the time, though, he'd gotten angrier at being helpless because of it, lashing out at me, my mom, my brother, lots of people." Chase listened, understanding Rocky a little bit better. "My parents were married for a while, but after the stroke, they'd gotten divorced. I'd convinced myself that it wasn't my dad's fault, that it was because of the stroke, that it turned him into a different dog. I later found out that they'd been talking about it for a while, but by then, I was more afraid of that specific medical problem because I associated it with becoming a different dog." By now, Chase was starting to feel worse for Rocky. He'd never known that his friend was a child of divorce before. "I love my dad, but it's hard for me to talk to him. Seeing him reminds me that I have fifty percent of his DNA, and I could become like that. And I can't tell anyone that. It just makes people look at me differently."_

" _Rocky…" Chase said, trying to say something, but couldn't find the words. Seeing his friend wasn't going to say anything, Rocky continued._

" _I know rationally that just because it happened to my dad, it doesn't mean it'll happen to me, and I know what I can do to prevent it. Somehow, though, I can't shake the thought of seeing myself whenever I talk to him." Rocky shed a tear, before chuckling a little bit. "It's funny. I've been on the brink of full insanity for nearly seven years, even jumping right into it for a while, but the time-loop doesn't scare me nearly as much as that thought. And even though the loop makes it nearly impossible to die that way, it's still my biggest fear."_

* * *

"Is that true, Rocky?" Rubble asked, looking at the mixed-breed, who looked away.

"It was true up to a point." Rocky admitted. "I addressed the fear a while back, and even talked to someone about it, although I don't think I'll ever conquer it." All the pups looked to him with looks of pity yet stayed silent. "Those faces are why I don't tell people who I talk to all the time."

"I can understand your fear." Chase said empathetically.

* * *

" _Rocky, it's okay to be afraid of that." Chase said, trying to comfort his friend. "I lost my dad to a couple gang members in my home town. I'm always getting scared that one day, someone will come after me the same way because of something I do. Then I thought about what my dad would've done if he knew what the events would lead to. If he knew arresting an entire gang would lead to dying, he'd probably still make sure they were off the streets, not hurting anyone else anymore."_

" _Your dad sounds like he was a good dog." Rocky complimented._

" _That's what the department kept telling me." Chase said, before looking Rocky in the eyes. "I know it's not the same, but I looked to what I knew of my own father for advice. But you can talk to yours still. If anyone knows how to help you, it'd be him." Rocky was a little unsure, so Chase made another point. "At least when you tell him, he won't remember tomorrow. And you'll still have advice from him." Rocky smiled, glad he could talk to his friend about problems like that one for once._

" _I will." Rocky relented. He looked at his watch, noticing the time. "We should go find some decent seats before it's too late." Chase wanted to ask more, but figured he'd wait until Rocky was up to it."_

* * *

"I guess seeing that movie more than once would be a plus side to being in a time-loop." Marshall commented, trying to find the silver lining.

"How many times do you think you could watch it before getting bored?" Everest asked curiously.

"In a row?" Marshall lifted a paw to his chin, thinking about it for a moment. "Probably five."

"I'd do six." Rubble added, making the others chuckle.

* * *

" _This is maybe the hundredth time I've seen this movie." Rocky recounted. "It still doesn't get old."_

" _How could it with an ending like that?" Chase asked glumly. "It had probably the saddest ending to the entire saga yet. Now we have to wait a whole year until the ne-" he cut himself off, seeing Rocky give him a look that said "_ Really? _" and immediately felt guilty. "Sorry."_

" _It's no big deal." Rocky said, turning his head away. "I accepted a long time ago that being in the loop means I'll never see the next one." While he tried to waive it off, Chase could still hear an underlying sadness in his voice. Figuring this was a good time to ask, Chase decided to press the matter further._

" _Anyway, I offered to be a sort of counsel for the time-loop, yet you've only told me about your dad." Rocky didn't turn to face him, but Chase saw his eye twitch. "If you have anything to talk about, I think now's the time." Rocky thought about turning him down for a minute but figured now was as good a time as any._

" _My dad was the biggest problem I'd been having before I came into the loop. I just needed to talk about it. Mostly, I'm wondering if I'll still be beneficial to the team if I ever escape."_

" _Why wouldn't you be?"_

" _I've spent seven years changing out the same tire every day. In the same way each time. I'm a little out of practice in all the other aspects of the job. Plus, I know I'll have a ton of psychological issues as well. I've read that story where you got your secret code from and I wonder if I'll have the same kind of problem when I'm out. That I won't be able to make decisions for myself. Or if I'll have PTSD. Not being able to handle the unexpected will end up being a problem too." Rocky was hoping Chase would interject, tell him that none of that would happen, but even though he'd never done this in any of his previous loops, he knew Chase well enough to know that he wouldn't add anything yet. "If I'm not as effective as I used to be at my job, would I still be on the team? And if I am, would I be stable enough to stay on the team?"_

" _Rocky, you know we'd never get rid of you." Chase reminded him. "If it helps at all, why don't we build something out of materials in your truck? I'll help you out with it."_

" _It wouldn't be here tomorrow." Rocky argued, not wanting to waste the effort on something that wouldn't matter._

" _That doesn't matter. If you end up out of the loop, at least you'll have the practice. And knowing how good of an engineer you are, you can come up with something new each day, too." Rocky smiled, glad that Chase was listening._

" _Alright, I'll create a design for some kind of machine to get Chickaletta down from the top of city hall. It'll cut our rescues in half." He said with a chuckle. He drew up some plans, involving what looked to be an elevator. "I figure a pressure sensitive contraption would be a good idea. If it's activated by her standing on it, she steps on and it'll lower her down quickly. Something solar powered would be good, or even better if it didn't even run on electricity. And just to ensure that she steps on it, a railing on top of the building would be essential._

* * *

"Rocky, are you writing all this down?" Rubble asked, seeing his friend scribbling in a notepad with his claw arm.

"It's a good idea. Chickaletta gets stuck up there a lot. And I should work to prevent emergencies as well as solving them. Although, I'd probably create it so that anyone can use it, not just Chickaletta. It would be helpful in making sure that easy passage to the roof was made."

"He's right." Chase agreed, looking at the notes. Rocky looked over to Ryder, who was still examining his whiteboard to figure out the damage of a time paradox.

"I'll ask him about it later."

* * *

 _Chase had handed Rocky whatever tools he asked for, making sure to note which ones were which, while they discussed random topics._

" _All I'm saying is that the DeLorean wasn't really the best car to use to build it. If it were me, I would have picked an '85 Jaguar." Rocky declared._

" _Consider how he didn't exactly have the highest paying job." Chase argued. "And everyone thought he was crazy, so no one was going to fund him. The DeLorean was the best choice with limited funds."_

" _True, but in that case, he probably could have just built a car from scratch that was better. He broke the laws of physics, but he couldn't make a working car that didn't break down every other trip?" Chase was about to argue, but Rocky continued. "And besides, he got plutonium from terrorists, but he didn't get any money from them?"_

" _They wouldn't pay him until they had the bombs, obviously."_

" _In that case, it was an error in judgment in the idea that he could make weapons without some kind of funding." He finished with cutting the piece of metal into a square. "Drill, please." Chase passed it on to him._

" _Okay, fine. The DeLorean wasn't the best choice he could've made for building his machine." A moment of silence, before Chase thought of something else to discuss. "Any ideas on how to build a laser sword?"_

" _The question would be how it stops at a certain length." Rocky stated, drilling a hole through the sheet of metal. "Logically, a beam of light doesn't stop three feet from its source."_

" _What if it burned itself out too quickly to go any further?"_

" _In that case, there's still three more questions that would need to be answered. What kind of gas do you use to make the laser, how do you stabilize the beam, and why is it that when two laser swords clash, they stop each other?" Rocky stopped drilling, putting a paw to his chin. "Maybe if the stabilization increased the gaseous pressure of the plasma, then the answer to the last two questions would be the same, but that would still leave two major questions to be answered." Chase was at a loss for words. He didn't have the technical knowledge to bounce new ideas off Rocky in making fantasy weapons reality. With nothing else, he resigned to asking him a question that he knew Rocky would try to evade._

" _I know there's something else bothering you about being in this time loop." Chase said, deciding to be blunt. "I'm trying to be patient in letting you talk to me about it, but we're running low on time and I'm starting to think you're going to avoid it no matter what. We only have an hour until sundown."_

" _You know, when I found out about the origin of your code, I spent like four loops laughing about it, but the-" Chase cut him off._

" _Don't change the subject." He said firmly. "I know there's something else that's bugging you. At the very least, talk about it once, because if you don't it'll keep bugging you until you eventually do." Rocky eyed him carefully, before returning to the invention. After looking at the design again, he started to work on the extension mechanism, not looking Chase in the eye._

" _Did you know that Zuma has a sister?" Chase was about to object, but Rocky stopped him. "I'm not off topic. Zuma's sister, Melody, visited a few months before this started. I got her email address and we talk every now and then. Every time we do, suddenly every problem I have doesn't matter. She's into astronomy and can tell me all kinds of things about space I don't know. And she's a better artist than she gives herself credit for. And she has a really beautiful voice. I've never heard her sing, but even when she's talking normally, it's amazing."_

* * *

"I can see where this is going." Skye commented, looking at Rocky.

"You've met my sistew?" Zuma asked, trying to remember when that would've happened, but he couldn't recall.

"Not to my knowledge." Rocky responded, thinking too. "But she sounds really cool."

"Don't get any funny ideas, dude," Zuma jokingly warned.

* * *

" _You like her?" Chase asked, interested. Rocky was silent for a little bit but nodded his head._

" _I've only known her for a few months before the loop started and she hasn't been able to talk to me for the day, meaning that it's been seven years since I've heard anything from her. Still, going through our old emails is one of my favorite things to do." Rocky chuckled. "It makes me feel like a creep, actually. I meet her for a few days, only talk to her online every now and then, and spent seven years going through old emails. Yet I can't shake her from my head in any of these loops. Even my insanity ones for a while. It held them off, knowing she would be afraid of me. Then it fueled them, knowing full well I'd probably never talk to her again."_

" _So, why haven't you told her how you felt?" Rocky just gave him a funny look._

"You _of all pups, asking me that?"_

" _Well if she returns your feelings, then great. If not, then it's not like she'll remember after that loop."_

" _That's what makes it worse." Rocky countered. Chase was confused, so Rocky continued. "I'm ninety percent certain she doesn't feel the same. I'll confess and then I'll be heartbroken for a long time. And even if she does, here's what will happen. I tell her, and she does feel the same. The next morning, she won't remember. She'll never remember longer than twelve or thirteen hours. I'll never have any memories of us being together at all. I'll be waiting for an end to them for several years before the answer matters." He sighed, looking to Chase. "I told you about it. I don't know if it'll bother me tomorrow, but if it does, now I can tell you that it didn't work." Chase sighed._

" _I can't force you to do anything about it. I can't say that I recommend telling Melody the truth, but I don't recommend_ not _telling her either. I'm going to give you the best advice I can. Go with your gut."_

 _Rocky looked at all the pieces he'd made over the past couple hours for the elevator and began putting them together._

" _I guess that's all I can do." Rocky admitted. "I'll keep it in mind." He looked over to Chase, though. "What does your gut say about_ your _problems, though?" Chase blushed, hesitating to answer the question._

" _To take my own advice and just go for it." Rocky nodded, and they continued only putting together the device. Once it was done, they brought it to Ryder._

" _Ryder, we made an elevator for Chickaletta, so it'll be easier for her to get off the roof whenever she gets stuck." Rocky cranked the machine, letting it rise into the air, the same height as the city hall._

" _Good thinking, pups." Ryder complimented, inspecting the machine. "This way, we can prevent an emergency instead of solving it. Let's show it to Mayor Goodway tomorrow and see what she thinks. For now, it's time to go to bed." Chase headed outside, ready to round up the pups. Rocky, however, stepped into the elevator. "Rocky, where are you going?"_

" _I kind of wanted to make some calls before I went to bed, if that's okay with you." Rocky said. Ryder was about to respond, but Chase spoke up first._

" _Sure, take as much time as you need." He said, knowing Ryder would ask him to make it quick. He may have needed to be responsible, but Chase knew what Rocky needed to do. He'd be in a little bit of trouble, but it would be worth it. Rocky smiled, pushing the button before Ryder could correct what Chase had said._

 _Rocky wished he didn't have to leave Chase alone to get in trouble but knew what he was about to do would be much harder. When the elevator stopped at the top floor, he'd walked up to the console, looking at his phonebook, which he'd grabbed from his pup house. Dialing the number, he waited for a minute before the screen had shown an image of an older mixed breed with light shades of grey. The left side of his face had been slightly drooping downward slightly. His left paw had a slightly bent toe, pointing more upward than the rest. He'd been laying calmly on a bed. Regardless, he'd lifted his head slowly and smiled as much as he could._

" _Hello, Rocky." He greeted happily, although his voice was really rough and slow-speaking, as though he was having a hard time enunciating his words._

" _Hey, dad." He returned._

* * *

The ARW shut off, leaving the others to think about what they'd witnessed.

"You know, when you asked to see a time loop, this wasn't what I was expecting." Rubble commented.

"Maybe, but it was still informative." Rocky said. "And it gave me some ideas." They looked at his notepad, which was flipped several more pages.

"I think you might have gone a bit overboard." Marshall said.

"I'll look through them and see what we can do." Ryder said, figuring there would be some good ideas in the notes. Skye stepped up.

"My turn!" she said, standing next to the ARW. "ARW, what would happen if-" before she could finish, the elevator had risen from the base floor, revealing Carlos and Tracker.

"Hola!" he called, greeting his friends, who rose to their paws to meet them.

"Tracker! Carlos!" Rocky said loudly. "What are you two doing here?"

"We needed a few supplies from town and figured we'd stop by to see how you all were doing." The team told them all about the ARW and the questions they'd asked, and Tracker was a bit interested, wondering what kind of question he could ask. "I kind of want to stay for a couple questions now. We have to get going after that, though." Carlos took a seat while Tracker laid on another beanbag chair.

Skye turned back to the screen, now content to put in her question. "ARW, what would happen if I was a witch?"

* * *

 **That was unexpectedly dull to write. I did a lot of deleting because I was completely unhappy with whole pages of this. Now I'm comparably content with what I have. Anyway, I've been requested to let Tracker ask a question, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.**


	10. Magical Pup Skye

**So, I've gotten more praise than I thought I would for Loopy Rocky. Also, I've been informed that accepting suggestions via reviews is prohibited by the site, even though it makes things easier, having multiple sources of inspiration available in the reviews. It's more encouraged to accept suggestions through PMs. On that note, I guess really putting this on here is an interaction in itself. It's a bit contradictive of itself.**

 **As for accuracy, I used Latin for the language that the spells are in. Keep in mind that I used Google Translate to figure out some of the phrases. I will leave a translation guide for what it started as before I turned it into Latin.**

* * *

"What made you ask that?" Tracker asked as Ryder pulled the lever.

"Earlier we'd had a glimpse of an anime universe where I was a spellcaster," Skye answered. "I wondered how useful magic spells like that would be for rescues."

"Witches are kind of creepy, though." Rubble commented, shuttering. "Burning priest bones, painting signs in blood under a red moon, wrapping up ingredients with pig skin, lots of scary things."

"Some of that is taken out of movies. Or made up." Skye argued. "Besides, I meant moreover as a general spellcaster than anything. I mean, any kind of magic that would be useful for rescues, I'd want to use."

"I'd picture you wouldn't show it off unless you had to, though." Chase said. "Witches aren't exactly seen as good things, even if they're doing good. Fact of the matter is that they're practicing craftwork that no regular person would understand."

"That's only in movies." Skye said, waving it off. Ryder looked unsure, however. Regardless of the answer, however, the ARW finished picking a universe to view. The image steadied, showing Skye flying her helicopter over a cliff, which Alex was hanging from a tree root on the side by his backpack. All the other pups were there at the base of the cliff, in case they could help in some way.

* * *

 _Since Marshall's firetruck couldn't get his ladder close enough to reach Alex, Ryder had put on the harness and had reached to grab Alex himself. "Okay, Skye, just move forward, nice and easy." He called up, making sure his pup had only moved forward steadily for him to be within reach of the five-year-old. "Don't worry, Alex. Just a few more feet."_

" _I'm not worried. I know you'll save me." He said confidently. He looked down, though, seeing the distance to the ground. There wasn't anywhere that Chase could deploy his net to catch Alex in case of a fall. "But, if you want to hurry, I wouldn't mind." Ryder smiled, understanding why Alex would be scared, before reaching over. Ryder was inches away, before they both suddenly heard something that struck terror in the both of them. A crack. Looking at the root Alex was hanging from, Ryder could see a crack in the wood, from the strain it had been enduring. Skye noticed too and hoped that she could move Ryder into position in time._

" _Alex, don't move." Ryder warned, trying to keep the tree from breaking any more than it already had, but it was too late. Even without Alex moving, the wood cracked more. Ryder tried to swing himself over to catch him, but the root had snapped, Ryder's hands just an inch from Alex's. The little boy had been falling. "NO!" He watched in horror, as there was nothing he could do to save Alex. Gasping, Skye reached into the back of her cockpit, grabbing a slingshot and an odd-looking bag, tied shut. She attached the slingshot to the side of the helicopter and aimed it downward. She loaded the bag into the sling and fired it directly down, hoping it could get further than Alex in time. As soon as it passed him, she activated a loudspeaker on her copter as well._

 _She spoke fast, but clearly into her microphone. "_ Peto, nate, gravitas. Ad virtutem flectere. _" Just as Alex was approaching the ground, a mere six inches away, his eyes shut in anticipation, he stopped. He realized he wasn't falling anymore and risked a look. He saw the grass in front of him and looked around, realizing there wasn't anything holding him up. Looking around, he noticed that the pups' vehicles were also floating as well. And the pups were floating off the ground too, although Marshall, having jumped before it started to happen, had floated much higher than the others. Ryder, almost stunned by what was happening looked up and saw Skye, her eyes squeezed shut, seeming to concentrate heavily on something. Not fully understanding what was going on yet, he looked at the bag that Skye had fired from her slingshot. It had for some reason burst into green flames and was burning fast. Within seconds, it had already burned up, leaving only ash left, and gravity returned to normal._

* * *

"Did anyone catch that spell she said?" Everest asked.

"It sounded like Latin." Ryder answered. "The only word I understood was 'gravitas' which means gravity."

"I don't get it." Rocky stated. "Why is it that spells are usually said in Latin?"

"It's because it's generally associated with spiritual matters." Carlos answered. "Some believe that it's the language of spirits, and using it gives more power to the spell."

* * *

 _They'd all fallen, although not very hard, considering how close to the ground they were. Alex landed on his back and Marshall landed on him. The rest had landed roughly in the same spot they were standing in before. They'd looked around, confused about what had happened, Ryder even more confused than they were. He didn't have time to dwell on it, however, as Skye's helicopter had wavered. She looked to have passed out from exhaustion. "Skye, you have to wake up!" he called out, feeling the line holding him swinging all over the place. "At least pull up to the top of the cliff." She was still unconscious, however, as the vehicle rapidly descended._

 _Ryder is normally level-headed. Having seen multiple emergencies over his time as leader of the PAW Patrol, he'd gained enough experience to remain calm under pressure. Now, however, as the ground was getting closer at an alarming rate, he panicked, unsure what to do. Luckily, Chase did have an idea. He activated Marshall's pup tag next to him, before using the megaphone on his pup pack. He yelled into the pup tag, also deafening Marshall, to get the message across._

" _SKYE! WAKE UP!" he yelled, creating lots of feedback through the multiple tags. It was enough for Skye to snap back into unsteady consciousness. She pulled back on the lever, narrowly avoiding the crash. She was unable to raise her altitude fully, however, and Ryder had to unfasten the harness, dropping onto the ground, landing on his feet but doing a roll to lessen the impact. The pups rushed over to their leader, seeing him crashing down. "Ryder, sir, are you okay?" He looked around and saw four pups surrounding him. He'd sat up, only to be tackled back down by all of them. He laughed a little but was confused. He looked around to the four pups and it didn't add up correctly._

" _Where's Rubble?" he asked. Before anyone could answer, they'd heard a call from above._

" _HELP!" Rubble called. Looking up, all four pups and Ryder saw Rubble, tangled up in the harness attached to Skye's helicopter. It was quickly rising in altitude and Rubble couldn't get free of the harness. Even if he did, he was too high up to be able to survive the fall._

" _Rubble!" Ryder shouted. He'd tried to get up, but fell down, quickly overcome with pain once he'd taken a step. Thinking quickly, Marshall jumped into his truck and pulled out his EMT gear._

" _Arf! X-ray!" he called, activating one of the extensions in his pup pack. Using it, he looked over Ryder's bones and diagnosed the problem. "That's gonna hurt. Your foot's dislocated." Without hesitation, Ryder grabbed his foot at the heel and pushed it back into place. He winced at the pain._

" _Wrap it up. We've got to follow Rubble and Skye." Marshall wrapped it in a bandage in order to keep Ryder from bending it too much. As soon as he was done, he tried standing again and limped back to his ATV slowly and turned it on. However, all four of his pups blocked the way. "Come on, we have to go after them."_

" _Correction, sir,_ we _have to go after them." Chase argued. "_ You _will use the autopilot on your ATV to go back to the lookout and stay off that foot."_

" _With all due respect, you'd be telling any one of us the same thing." Rocky agreed._

" _But-" Marshall cut him off._

" _No 'buts', Ryder." He argued. "As medical pup, I order you to go back to the lookout and wait for us to return with Skye and Rubble."_

" _Don't worwy," Zuma added, "we can find them if we split up. We'll even keep you updated while we'we looking." Ryder wanted to argue more but knew there wouldn't be any use. When it came to injuries, medical pups outranked everyone. "Besides, someone's got to take Alex home." Ryder looked to his left and saw the red-haired boy standing next to him, unharmed from the fall. Sighing, he knew they were right and patted the spot for Alex to sit, who jumped on automatically._

" _Autopilot, engage." Ryder said, setting coordinates to the lookout. "I'll call for any updates. I'll see you all later. Chase is in charge." The ATV took off automatically, going in the direction of Adventure Bay with Ryder and Alex on it. All the pups looked to Chase, who was already in his truck, switching to his spy gear and truck._

" _Let's get moving." He started up his truck and drove in the direction they last saw Skye flying in, followed shortly by the rest of the team._

 _Rubble had stopped screaming for help once he was certain the PAW Patrol was out of earshot. Instead, he tried to get a more stable hold on the harness he was dangling from. Granted, he was fine with being tied to it, so long as he wasn't falling from it, but he needed to get some blood circulation in his paws. Once he was certain that he was secure, he looked around and noticed that the helicopter was steadily rising, going higher and higher. He'd wondered what Skye was doing up there, before realizing she'd probably fallen unconscious again._

" _Skye are you okay up there?" he asked, hoping he was wrong. When no response came, he tried again. "Come on, Skye, I need you to wake up and land, please." Suddenly, he heard a beeping coming from above him. It sounded like a hazard warning. He activated his pup tag for Skye to answer. "Come on, Skye! Wake up and land!" He heard her stirring and gasp on the other end, signifying that it had worked. She did her best to lower the altitude of where she was. "Don't forget that I'm tangled in your harness."_

" _What?!" she shouted. Rubble looked up and saw her peak over the edge to check. Unfortunately, the helicopter blades sparked and started to smoke. Skye saw that and tried to do whatever she could in her copter, but she couldn't get the blades to spin at full speed again. Instead, she jumped over the edge and activated her pup pack, flying down to where Rubble was. She bit the cord, trying to cut him loose of the harness. Short on time, Rubble tried to chew through the harness too, hoping one of them would break before it was too late. Before he could get all the way through, however, the helicopter had lowered enough for Rubble to hit a tree, getting the cord tangled in the branches, tearing Rubble free from the copter. However, the cord wasn't secure enough to keep Rubble in the tree, which he fell through all the branches of. "Rubble!" Skye flew down to where her friend was laying on a rock below and noticed two things. The first was that he had a sharp branch stabbed through the right side of his stomach, covered in what she assumed was his blood. The second was that his back-right paw was bent out of place._

" _S-Skye?" Rubble said, in a lot of pain from the impalement. He felt the branch in him and knew that no pup could survive that kind of wound. "I guess this is it for me."_

* * *

"Oh, come on!" Rubble complained. "Why do I always die?"

"Does this happen a lot?" Tracker asked.

"This is only the second time." Rocky said. "Not counting the time loops, but everyone died in that one. Over and over."

"And I'm out of the tournament in PAW Patrol Z." Rubble argued.

"But did you die?" Skye argued. "At least you were in it at all."

"Yet in the next episode, you'll still have a bigger role than me."

* * *

" _No." Skye disagreed, looking at Rubble. "Just stay right there and don't move too much." Without much knowledge on what to do, she had to work fast. She dabbed one of her claws in Rubble's blood and used it to draw a diagram on the rock. Rubble's vision started to darken, so he couldn't fully see what she was doing. When she finished, she drew the same symbol on Rubble. He was too dazed to know what was going on, so he just lay back and let her do what she was doing. Once she turned Rubble so that the thick part of the branch was facing her. "Okay, this is going to hurt. A lot." Before Rubble could ask what she meant by that, she'd gripped the branch in her jaw and pulled it out as fast as she could. He yelped and screamed, feeling the most pain he'd felt in a while. It knocked him out of his confusion, causing him to question what Skye was doing. Before he could utter a single word, she'd dipped a whole paw in Rubble's blood. "_ Quod factum est a sanguine, erit in damnum. _" As soon as she spoke, Rubble felt like his stomach had torn itself apart at the gash in his abdomen, before putting itself back together. He had thought it was over, before it happened again. It had hurt even more the second time, but it ended even quicker. Once more, the pain had skyrocketed, being felt completely, before he could finally feel it go away completely. He looked down and saw that he was still a bloody mess, but he could see no more gushing out of him. He felt around the entry spot and could only feel a scar, as if he'd gone through months of healing in only a couple seconds. "There. That should… do it…" and with that, she'd fallen down. Rubble worried that she'd fainted again but could see her eyes still following him. "I'm fine… Just worn out." She took a deep breath. "I'd never performed that spell before, but I couldn't just let you bleed out." Rubble was just shocked. He'd been close to death a minute ago, and now the worst he felt was a little tired._

" _I had a big branch through my tummy a minute ago." Rubble recalled. "Now there's a scar." Skye looked up at it, then chuckled._

" _I guess I wasn't prepared to cast that, yet. There shouldn't even be a scar." Rubble was confused, then remembered what happened when gravity had acted weird. She'd only said a few words, and everyone had floated off the ground. Now she used a drawing of blood to seal a fatal injury. "Of course, I might've just been a little too drained from the gravitas flectere spell."_

" _Yeah, you're saying things I'm not keeping up with." Rubble stated. "You made us all float, then passed out and accidentally got me stuck on your helicopter, then you crash, notice I'm going to die, and decide to stop me from dying? And then there's talk of spelling and you're pretty much using words to defy reality. How are you doing this?" Skye looked unsure of herself, before deciding she had no choice anymore but to tell the truth._

" _I'm a witch." She answered, taking in Rubble's half-shocked expression. He probably had some idea, since it would be the only way to explain this. "More precisely, I'm a familiar, a witch-in-training."_

" _I thought only humans could be witches." Rubble interjected._

" _That's true, for the most part. But when a new witch seeks to be trained in the art of witchcraft, they're required to be turned into a familiar, an animal form of their master's choosing. It's to help the beginning spellcaster to first learn the basics of how spell-craft works. For example, I can't just say a few words in Latin and expect to reverse gravity. I must have the right components gathered and put together in the right kind of hex bag. It takes griffin feathers, the first wool of a lamb, pigeon bones, dragon scales, things that are really hard to find." Rubble looked confused. Skye thought that she may have made a mistake in her explanation._

" _You're human?" he clarified._

" _Yes, that's true." Skye said, a little relieved that he was still following along with the explanation so far. "And when I did that thing there a second ago, that was blood magic. It's normally used for much stronger spells, but I've never wanted to use that. The bigger the spell, the more blood is needed. I only used a little bit of yours to patch up what I could."_

" _You're human?" Rubble repeated, still not wrapping his head around that._

" _Yes, Rubble." Skye rose to her paws, needing to get her own blood flowing again, and started to walk toward her now crashed helicopter. "We're supposed to be returned back to our original form once we've finished our training, but I never actually finished my training." Rubble was still dumbfounded._

" _You're hu-" Skye had cut him off at this point._

" _Yes, Rubble, I was human. I changed gravity and saved you from literal certain death today, get over the least shocking discovery of the day."_

* * *

"Yeah, I find myself focused on that too." Rocky admitted, all the other pups nodding as well.

"It's hard not to." Skye agreed.

* * *

" _To you, it's the least shocking discovery. I've just had my understanding of nature changed and it's hard to process!" He took a couple deep breaths until he rationalized everything she said. "So, you could be human again if you completed your training. Why didn't you do that?"_

" _Well there's a specific set of rules for training someone by using the familiar method. A familiar can only learn under their master so long as they're both alive. It's how the symbiotic relationship works. The master can use a familiar as a conduit to channel their magic through and a familiar siphons little bits of energy at a time as they learn the new spells. However, anything else beyond that is dangerous. A familiar is only capable of learning from one teacher and cannot be transferred to another. When my master perished, I no longer had a teacher." Rubble's eyes widened. He hadn't expected someone to die in this story. Even so, he had to know how it would end._

" _And you can't just learn on your own? And even if you're not allowed, can't another witch turn you back?" Skye chuckled a little bit._

" _Those were my first questions, too. However, only the original master or the grand witch of their coven can return me to my original form. And that presented another problem. My master's coven considered drop out students to be a disgrace to themselves. So they had decided that if a familiar's master dies…" she trailed off, leaving Rubble to piece it together._

" _That's not fair!" Rubble argued. "It's not like it was your fault she died." Skye nodded sadly, before looking up. Rubble followed her gaze and realized they were at the wreckage of the broken helicopter._

" _I don't know what_ he _had planned for, but he actually did me a favor after he died." Skye jumped into the broken vehicle and pulled out a bag. Rubble wasn't sure what it was but sat down. He was starting to feel tired still, and Skye could tell. "You should probably take it easy for now. I never used that spell before and I'm not sure how good of a job I did. You might want to have Marshall look you over when you get back to the lookout." Rubble rubbed the scar left from the tree branch._

" _I don't think he'll know if a witch did a good job patching me up."_

" _He'll know if you lost too much blood and he'll be able to use his x ray to see if I left any splinters in you." She pulled a book out of the bag and read the title, before putting it off to the side. She pulled out another one. Again, reading the title, she put it down and pulled out another. Realizing that it wasn't it, she sighed and tipped the bag over, before picking it up and emptying it out. A couple dozen more books fell out, along with some daggers and different kinds of cloth. There were even some containers of different liquids scattered about. Skye looked through the books while Rubble just looked at the bag. She didn't look in his direction, but Skye knew he was looking at it. "Extension charm. Difficult to do, but very useful. It creates a lot of extra space in a container. However, if the rune on it is tampered with while it's full, the bag would be broken to pieces." She found the book she was looking for and opened it to a specific page. She read off each heading as she looked for the specific entry. "Organic Temporal Manipulation, Organic Temporal Obstruction, Organic Tissue Compression… Here it is: Organic Tissue Reconstruction." She took a silver inkwell and opened it, dipping one of her claws in it, and began writing in the book._

" _Remind me to ask you if I can read those." Rubble said, genuinely curious about what would be in those books._

" _Can you read Latin?" Skye asked, already knowing the answer. Rubble shook his head, before looking back toward where they came from. He touched his pup tag, trying to contact the team, but only received static. His guess was that it was damaged in the fall through the tree._

" _So, how do you think we're going to get back?" Rubble asked, not sure what to do now. Skye closed her spell book._

" _I'd say pile up some wood and make a signal fire. You can use the leftover gasoline from my helicopter to make it easier to light. That way, the others can find you more easily." Something about the way she said that bothered Rubble. Regardless, he gathered wood together, and brought them closer to where Skye was at, who seemed to be writing in another book._

" _What are you writing in those?"_

" _Blood magic, as far as I've seen isn't really used to heal wounds. Ironic, considering it would probably be one of the best sources of artificial energy to do so. I updated the blood magic ritual books and now I'm adding a healing spell to the medicinal book." This only made Rubble raise an eyebrow._

" _Is this really important right now?"_

" _If I don't do it now, I'll keep forgetting to do it. My master left me these books in his will. The least I can do is add as much knowledge as I can to them."_

" _But now we have to clean up all these books after you're done." As if on cue, Skye closed the book she was writing in, finished with it. She turned to the discarded bag turning to a rune painted on it and tapped it twice. Magically, all the things from the bag had started to float. Looking closer, Rubble noticed that all of them had a matching rune to the bag, glowing a light blue. For a few seconds, they all floated there, until Skye turned her paw slightly. Abruptly, all the books, daggers, cloth, and bottles flew into the bag, cleaning up the ground. "I probably should have seen that coming."_

" _Alright, let's get that firewood, and I'll use a spell to light it." She followed Rubble, gathering wood that seemed dry enough to light easily. Her companion was silent during the work, using his pup pack's shovel to carry the wood. After a few minutes, though, Skye didn't really like the silence. "I know you have questions, and I've lied to you enough. You can ask me anything."_

" _I'm sure you had your reasons." He responded, waiving her comment. "Have you ever turned anyone into a frog?" Skye rolled her eyes, knowing of that cliché._

" _I've never had a reason to. Nevertheless, transfiguration like that is child's play."_

" _Does anyone else in town know about your magic?"_

" _If they do, they haven't confronted me about it. I try to keep my practice well-hidden. I only used it to save Alex because there weren't any other options."_

" _Why do you need to keep it a secret?"_

" _Witches can detect high concentrations of energy used in witchcraft. Using too much magic at any time would alert them to where I am, and they'll know where I am now." She picked up a medium-sized branch, putting far more effort into it than Rubble had ever seen her use. "That gravity spell I used couldn't be used on that scale without a lot of energy. They'll come for me. And if I'm anywhere near town, they'll make the town into a battlefield."_

" _What do we do now?"_

" _You're going back to the lookout, you'll take it easy in case you're still injured, and tell the others of what I told you. Then, you'll find a new aerial pup, one that doesn't put you all in danger."_

" _What?!" Rubble turned, nearly dropping all the wood he was carrying, to face Skye, who seemed prepared for him to react this way._

" _I can't stay here, now." She looked sad, almost lamenting the words she said. "If I'm in town tonight, the coven will attack Adventure Bay. I swore to protect this town as much as I could. Being here won't do that anymore. I need to leave."_

" _You can't leave!" Rubble argued. He knew that Skye probably knew what she was talking about, but he didn't want his friend to leave. "What would the others say?"_

" _Probably the same thing you're saying. It's not something I want to do, just what has to be done."_

" _It can't be that bad. Whatever happens, we can face it together. All of us. We'll-"_

" _The last time they tracked me, they sunk an entire ship I was on. One witch started a storm bigger than any of the crew were ready for and now they're all gone. That's a relatively nice example of a coven's wrath. I've heard a lot from my master. He told me that single witches caused much worse things to happen throughout history. The Black Dragon Fire, Mitsumata Village Avalanche, Schoolhouse Blizzard, lots of small floods… Ant those were all done by one or two witches. If a coven decides that the insult is too much, and they worked together, six could even set off a volcano. And then Pompeii was gone." Rubble heard what she was saying but was having a hard time comprehending it. Still being young, he could never fathom such ruthlessness from somebody. To destroy an entire city, with thousands of people, just doesn't seem like something that could be real. "My master theorized that they were in the middle of a war to do that. That there were witches in Pompeii that they were attacking. Everyone else was collateral damage."_

" _Collateral damage?!" Rubble shouted, now getting mad about this. "Thousands of people wiped out in a single day and they weren't even involved. How can witches be so-" Rubble stopped himself, remembering Skye was also in that category. And his eyes widened in realization. Skye was in that category. "Wait, if your coven is so wicked, why would you join them? Why would you willingly join someone who treats other lives like that?" Skye didn't answer immediately, seeming to collect her thoughts. Finally, she spoke._

" _The same way a lot start out. I was young and childish, and captivated by the magic they used. The way they could control the world around them. I didn't think about the consequences, or what would happen if I became a full-fledged witch. I just needed that kind of power as quick as I could get it." Rubble felt like there was more that she wasn't telling him but didn't press further. She was still entitled to her own privacy. "Either way, Adventure Bay shouldn't pay for my mistake. I can't be here when they get here." Rubble knew what she was saying was right, but he couldn't accept it anyway._

" _How do you know they won't just attack the town anyway when you leave? It's not like they'll have anything to lose, and they won't be in a good mood."_

" _They've never sent anyone too quickly. When I leave tonight, I'll start setting off huge spells to lead them off in a different direction. Hopefully, they'll take the bait."_

" _And if they don't, then your magic is the best defense the town has. Without you, who knows how we'd defend ourselves." Skye bit her lip, unnerved by that thought._

" _I'm not on their level. Their power is far beyond what you could imagine, and I don't think I can protect even myself, let alone an entire town."_

" _Then what about all of us?" Skye was about to argue, but Rubble cut her off. "Stop, how many times have you faced them with a team behind you?"_

" _Never. And I never will. I can't bring-" Rubble chose this point to cut her off._

" _Don't give me those excuses, about how you can't risk someone else. That's not why you're running." Skye couldn't meet his gaze but listened to his words. "You're running because you're scared. I know because you have that look in your eyes. That same look that Alex has when he puts himself in danger, or that Captain Turbot and Francois have when they get themselves into trouble. What do they do when they're in that trouble?" He waited for Skye to answer, but she never gave one. "They call us to help them. And we'll always help anyone in trouble."_

" _This isn't the same!" Skye shouted, stopping Rubble from going on. "I'm not stuck on the side of a cliff, or have a boat frozen in ice. I have someone wanting to drop a cliff_ on _me, coming after me. Someone who would rather freeze me in the ice. Yes, I'm scared of what any witch who comes after me will do to me. But some people who put themselves between me and a witch found their blood boiling. One had their bones turned to glass and skin turned to paper. I've seen a friend of mine, fully conscious the entire time, turned to fruit to be juiced by the witch. So, yes. I'm afraid of what a witch will do to me when they finally catch up to me. But I'm more terrified of what they'd do to you. Or Chase. Or Marshall, Zuma, Rocky, Everest, Tracker, Ryder, Katie, anyone who would try to fight them off. And the worst part is that I know you all would. Because I'd do the same for you." Rubble didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. They continued gathering the firewood and brought it back to the plane, just as the sun was setting. "I'll stay with you, until nightfall, or until the team spots us. At that point, I have to go." Rubble was glum. Everything she said made sense, but he really didn't want his friend to leave. To live this life that she had. He wanted her to live more happily._

" _What will you do after you leave?" Rubble asked, not wanting to know the answer._

" _I don't know, honestly." Skye pointed her paw at the pile of wood in front of her. "_ Flamma." _A ball of fire shot from the pad of her paw and hit the pile of wood, lighting the campfire. Under other circumstances, it would have amazed Rubble, but he was more focused on what Skye was saying. "I was thinking of heading towards Paris, probably see if I can find what kind of shelter I can find in that direction. Or maybe somewhere in Africa, the wildlife energy would be extra effective for hiding mine. I'll think about it on the trip. It's not like I'll have any choice." Her words only deepened Rubble's desire to stop her._

" _Aren't you tired of running?" he asked. Skye, for the first time the entire day, looked him directly in his eyes._

" _I'm actually much older than I look, my training having started decades ago, one of the first spells I learned having been to prolong my youth. I've been across the entire world twice over and kept having to leave before I could make any connections. Finally, two years ago, I found Adventure Bay. I laid low as much as I could, still discreetly using what little allies I have left to gather ingredients I needed for failsafe and emergency spells. Then Ryder found me, and he taught me to fly. For the first time, I was doing something incredible without the use of magic. And I wanted to keep doing it. I became a rescue pup to do so, and for once found friends, who had become my family. And it grew even more. And I put them all in danger by casting a spell to save Alex. And now I have to leave, before I put them in even more danger. I really don't want to. I don't ever want to leave you guys. So, to answer your question, yes, I am tired of running. I'm more tired of it than you would believe. But I have to keep doing it." Rubble was about to respond, but a new voice stopped them._

" _If you're so tired, why keep doing it?" The two sharply turned their heads toward the direction it came from. A woman, appearing in her mid-thirties was standing there, with shoulder length brown hair. She wore a blue t-shirt and jeans and had a light-blue robe over it. Her eyes were hazel, and she wore red lipstick. It honestly was not the appearance of a witch Rubble imagined. "Just stay still and accept your fate."_

* * *

"That is not what I expected a witch to look like." Rubble said. "I expected someone older and wrinklier, and maybe a wart or two."

"I didn't expect the jeans." Chase added. "Thought it would've just been a long dress robe."

"What about a wand or something?" Everest added.

"All common stereotypes." Ryder commented. "Should probably add a broom and a cat then."

* * *

 _Instinctually, Skye raised her palm to her. "_ Flamma! _" A fireball emerged from her paw again, this time a little bigger and aimed directly at the witch, who raised her own palm without a word and blocked it, completely neutralizing the fire without a single burn. "_ Glacies!" _This time, a flurry of ice emerged from her palm, and the witch, again without a word, fired a ball of fire from her palm, melting all the ice, and hit Skye, who moved her head for the blast to hit her back instead, knocking her down._

" _Skye!" Rubble called, who jumped in front of her, growling at the enemy._

" _Cute." With a flick of her wrist, she sent Rubble flying several yards into a mud puddle. "Since you've been on the run instead of accepting your end with grace, I'm not sure if you deserve the customary respect that comes with a witches' duel. Nevertheless, my name is Margaret, a Graduated Apprentice Witch. How do you do?" She bowed to Skye, who had risen to her feet. Instead of replying, she ran toward Rubble, who had gotten out of the mud puddle._

" _Are you okay?" Rubble nodded, and Skye pulled him along with her. "Come on, we have to get out of here." As soon as she had taken a few steps, however, a bubble appeared in front of her. She was about to duck under and keep running, until she'd gotten a better look at it, and gasped. Floating inside the bubble, was Chase. She backed away, seeing him in the bubble. He was struggling against it, trying to break out of it, but it was no use. She couldn't even hear his shouts. Suddenly, three more bubbles appeared, these ones containing Marshall, Zuma, and Rocky, all doing the same as Chase._

* * *

"Anyone else notice that she's casting spells without saying the words?" Rocky asked.

"It shows the diffewence in theiw power." Zuma stated. "Skye can't do it because she nevew finished hew twaining and this one is a full witch now."

"But that means Skye has a clear disadvantage." Chase pointed out.

"Theoretically." Ryder added, watching the screen with interest.

* * *

" _I was sent here to kill an apostate familiar pup." Margaret announced from behind them. "It took us all this time to have gotten organized enough to even send me out before you could run this time. I even had enough time to find all these extra pups playing with some weird toys. Of course, if I can't get the apostate, I guess these will have to do for now." Skye slowly turned around to face her, Margaret smirking evilly. "Would you really abandon your family, though?" There was no hesitation in Skye's response._

" _My name is Skye, a Senior Familiar. I accept your challenge under the terms of releasing them all. I will not back down." She placed a paw on her own chest, and a red sigil appeared on it. "I swear on my heart that I will see this battle to the end if you swear on yours that no harm will come to the five pups behind me or the residents of Adventure Bay." Margaret smiled, releasing the bubbles that contained her friends and placed a hand on her own chest creating her own sigil._

" _I swear on my heart that I will not harm any of the citizens of Adventure Bay, nor your little pup family." Skye bowed her head, having no way to run anymore. "Since this is my challenge, you may name your witness."_

" _Chase will be the witness." Skye looked to him. "No matter what happens, you may not interfere with this battle. It is only over at death or incapacitation. Usually death."_

" _Are you crazy?!" he shouted. "Run, then. Get out of here." Skye shook her head._

" _I just swore on my heart that I wouldn't. If I run, my heart will be ripped out of my body. And I've declared you my witness, which means that if you interfere, I will automatically lose. Any of you help me in any way, and I'll still lose." She turned toward Margaret. "I have to do this alone. Now stand a little bit away, and shout for this to begin." Chase was unsure but didn't argue with Skye. He backed away from both of them and watched carefully._

" _BEGIN!" He shouted. And thus, began some of the most painful minutes of Chase's life. Watching a friend get hurt, having announced the start of it, and not being able to do anything about it. Margaret wordlessly fired fireball after fireball at the Cockapoo, who dodged each flame with ease. Rubble wondered why Margaret didn't have to chant a spell to cast them like Skye did but he didn't question it. He couldn't afford to distract Skye._

"Mercurius pede! _" Suddenly, Skye's feet glowed, and she darted even faster than she was before. Almost six times her normal speed. The pups were astounded, but Margaret almost looked bored._

" _Please." She aimed her hand downward, and suddenly water had erupted from it, covering the ground. Skye, having not expected it, slipped on the resulting mud, and slid into the trunk of a tree which, combined with her increased speed, hurt a lot. "If that's the best you got, I should've just finished you off when I saw you."_

"Glacies! _" Skye aimed the spell at the water around Margaret's feet, effectively trapping her in ice. Skye used her speed, which hadn't worn off yet to circle around her, keeping Margaret from being able to aim at her. She tried to twist the other way, but before it could matter, Skye tackled her from behind, knocking her in the water. Margaret barely had time to turn over, for Skye to have jumped on top. From here, Skye could see that she was a little surprised by the maneuver. Skye balanced on two paws and aimed the other two at the mud on either side of Margaret. "Is this good enough for you?_ Draco ignis!" _Two pillars of fire emerged from her paws, both hitting the water right newt to Margaret. Within two seconds, the water started to boil, and Margaret felt it. In searing pain, she started to scream. "You might have a fire shield up, but it does nothing for really hot water, now does it?" Getting frustrated, Margaret punched Skye, knocking her as far back as she could go. She rose up to her feet, now unfrozen thanks to the boiling muddy water. She was covered in burn marks from the boiling water._

" _You shouldn't have done that, pup!" she seethed, thrusting her hands to the side to part the water. "Now I'm mad!" Skye pointed her paws at the water on both side and cast another ice spell freezing them. Margaret, abandoning the water, started to crackle with electricity, and a lightning strike erupted from them, hitting Skye, who hadn't tried to move yet, sending her back. Skye darted away, doing her best to dodge the attacks. Margaret was focused single-mindedly on attacking Skye, she barely noticed the changes around her. She kept zapping at the blur of a pup, who dodged and dodged. Suddenly, though, Skye slowed down. She slowed down so much that she couldn't dodge the next attack, getting hit into one of the chunks of ice from earlier. "Now I've got you!" She charged the electricity in her hands, gathering as much as she could into them. She was about to fire off when one of the sparks of lightning arched away from her hand and hit her, zapping her out of her focus so she instead hit the ice block._

"Mercurius pede! _" Skye called again and zoomed away from the spot she was at. Margaret tried to charge up her electricity again, but it kept arching for some reason, zapping her instead. And that's when she noticed. At some point, a heavy fog had dropped on them. It was conducting the electricity to be redirected back at her. This fog isn't natural. She knew that much. The pup must've created it somehow. "Over here!" Lighting a fireball, Margaret fired in the direction of the voice. "No, here!" She said from the other side. Again, Margaret fired another fireball at that spot. "Can't you hit me?" Skye's voice said again, on the other side of her. Margaret was getting flustered. She couldn't hit the pup, no matter what she did. "I'm barely even moving." Margaret tried to throw another fireball, but she couldn't produce anymore fire. She tried again, but nothing came up. Then it hit her. She was out of energy. "If that's all you got, I think I should've finished this a little while ago. But I guess this is enough." Margaret was infuriated by her words, but also confused. What did she mean 'enough'? "_ Simas." _The fog got thicker._ "Simas." _Again, the fog got thicker around her, and she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face._ "Simas. Glacies." _The fog condensed to just around her body, and froze around her, effectively trapping her fully in ice._

" _What happened?" she demanded. "What was that spell you used? How did you get this fog down without casting a fog spell? Why am I trapped in ice?"_

" _Simple, really." Skye smirked, facing Margaret. "When you made all that water appear, my thoughts immediately went to all the different ways I could use it. Boiling it to hurt you, evaporating it so there's plenty of water vapor, freezing it to trap you. Then I thought, 'All of the above sounds nice.' Once you were out of the boiling water, there was already a lot of steam, but it wasn't enough to go through with the plan. So, I used it to blind you instead. Making a heavy fog by condensing any water vapor in the air. And every time some extra vapor was anywhere, I kept making it into fog, condensing it around you. And then I made you fire at the leftover ice, giving me even more steam, and a thicker fog."_

" _You didn't cast any spell like that." Margaret angrily argued. "You can't cast any spells through the mind, only verbal."_

" _Who says?" Margaret thought back to all the things she heard her say, then one thing stood out. "I'm a SENIOR Familiar. Heck, I've probably been a Senior Familiar since before you even started your training. Mind casting was taught to me a long time ago. Verbal serves two purposes that you have failed to learn. One, they help you focus on what you're doing and make it so you use less energy. Two, the verbal spells make for a nice distraction from the mind spells. Anyway, once you used up your energy, all I had to do was condense all this water to you, so I could freeze you solid."_

" _How do you even make fog like this?"_

" _The_ Simas _spell, obviously." Skye chuckled a little. "It's funny. It's such a rookie level spell that no one teaches it anymore, thinking it wouldn't really be useful, since it only condenses low density matter. Yet it's responsible for your downfall." Now she looked fully serious. She used a claw to draw a rune on the ice. "Now remember something. I've always run from the coven, thinking I was no match for them. Yet I was easily able to beat a witch two levels above me. From here on, I'll fight every witch sent after me. If any of them want to come for my head, it'll be waiting in Adventure Bay. And warn every hunter that comes after me that if they attack the town, or threaten my friends or family again, there won't be any second chances. Is this all understood?" Margaret begrudgingly nodded. "And lastly, there's one thing I need you to tell the grand witch as soon as you get back." Skye raised her face to Margaret's. "I invoke the Familiar Trials." Margaret's eyes widened, just before Skye pressed her paw to the rune. "_ Dimitte! _" Suddenly, Margaret was gone, almost as though she vanished from existence. Taking a deep breath, she turned toward her friends, who watched with open jaws. "So, I answered Rubble's questions. Anyone else have… any…" Before Skye could say anything more, she collapsed._

" _Skye!" Chase called, broken from his stupor. He rushed toward his teammate, who lay in front of him in a mud puddle. Marshall ran toward her too, donning his medical gear. When he saw her state, he could see there wasn't anything to worry about._

" _It's alright." He announced. "She just passed out. Probably exhausted."_

" _We should probably just take her home." Zuma said, pointing toward the lookout. Chase nodded and picked her up, putting her on his back to carry her._

* * *

"Not bad, Skye." Rubble said, congratulating his friend. "You got hit by two fireballs and lightning, but you managed to turn it around."

"I guess I would make a decent witch," Skye agreed.

"I wonder if you're a better witch in this or in PAW Patrol Z." Marshall wondered aloud.

"I kind of want to see this PAW Patrol Z you all keep talking about." Tracker said. "But I already had something in mind for my own."

* * *

 _Sometime later, Skye stirred in her sleep. Without opening her eyes, she could feel a soft cushion below her. Taking a gentle sniff, she smelled her own scent, confirming that it was her own pillow. She also smelled something else familiar. Taking another whiff, she realized that she could smell the other pups. Opening her eyes, all of them were laying next to her makeshift bed made of pillows. None of them were awake yet, so she snuck by them, walking to the snack machine. She dispensed a few pepperoni chews, feeling extra hungry. Eating one happily, she put the rest in her bowl._

" _I figured you'd be hungry," Chase said from behind her, startling her, "Seeing as you haven't eaten in two days." That surprised her._

" _I've been asleep for days?" she repeated. Considering she did feel a little groggy, that did make sense. If she wasn't so hungry, she might've gone back to sleep. "I guess I did use a lot of energy that day, between the gravitas flectere spell, healing Rubble's injury, and entering a witches' duel." Stretching her limbs out, she looked back to Chase. "I guess you've got a few questions."_

" _Not a lot. Rubble answered most of them." Chase put his bowl under the snack machine, dispensing a few snacks for himself. "Really, I only have one over all the others. Why didn't you ever tell us? And don't say it was to protect us. Not telling us the kind of danger we could be in would be the exact opposite." Skye wanted to argue but couldn't. Chase was right about that._

" _You're right. Lying to you only put all of you in danger. And I can never make up for that. To begin, though, I'll promise one thing. I won't lie about anything to do with the witches ever again. My past, the coven, my master, I'll answer every question you ask about any of it." Chase nodded, happy that she'd be truthful. "As for why I never told you, it's because I was scared. Witches don't generally have a good reputation and when I first met you all, I was scared of being turned away. As time went on, I felt that you wouldn't send me away for being a witch. But if you learned about the coven hunting me, or that if I told you how much I haven't told you, it could be a different story. I didn't want to leave. Ever. So, I kept it all to myself." Chase nodded, chewing on one of his snacks._

" _I understand all that. But you said that we were family. Do you really think your family would ever send you away?" Skye wanted to respond but stopped herself. Chase was about to question why she hesitated, but then decided not to. Even if she's still hiding something, he trusted her. And she was still entitled to her own privacy. Instead, he decided to change the subject. "So… were you really human?" Skye, understanding what he was doing, giggled._

" _Yeah, a long time ago." Then, a thought popped in her head. "I could draw you a picture of what I used to look like some time."_

* * *

"Anyone else suddenly wonder what they'd look like as a human?" All pups raised a paw.

"I've started wondering what kind of pup I would be." Ryder said.

"And now I have too." Carlos agreed.

* * *

" _I'll hold you to that." Chase promised. "Now come on, let's go wake up the others." Before following him, Skye grabbed a few more bowls and filled them up._

" _Let's wake them up with breakfast." Once the bowls were all filled, she gathered all six into a circle. "_ Ova, lardum, capsicum annuum. Ova, lardum, capsicum annuum." _The treats in the bowl started to glow._ "Ova, lardum, capsicum annuum!" _In an instant, all the treats were gone. And in their place in each bowl, two eggs, two strips of bacon, and a side of hash browns had appeared. "They still have all the same nutrients as the treats, now they just taste like something else." Chase was dumbstruck, mouth watering._

" _I seriously cannot believe in the years I've known you, you've never done that before." Skye giggled and pushed three bowls to the pups. Chase grabbed the other three and pushed them as well. Rubble was the first to wake up, having smelled bacon._

" _Breakfast!" he shouted, waking the others up, who had quickly picked up the same scent. He jumped up, and in a very Marshall-like fashion, tripped over his own feet and rolled in front of his bowl in an upright position, making all the others laugh as well. While they were all eating, Rocky had a thought._

" _Hey, Skye," he said, "you said something to that witch that confuses me." The female pup looked up from her meal to meet his gaze. "You told her that you invoke something called the Familiar Trials. What is that?" Skye, for her part, looked nervous._

" _I can't believe I did that, honestly." She said regretfully. "Must've been the adrenaline. The familiar trials are the final test a familiar must take before they may become a witch. If I pass, there will no longer be any reason to hunt me."_

" _Then we'll make suwe you pass." Zuma promised. "How many twials awe there?"_

" _Traditionally eight. But it's the trial master's decision. They give me as many trials as they feel are necessary until they think I've proven myself to be worthy of being a witch. Potentially, they can just give me unlimited trials until one of them kill me. And I told them exactly where I'm at." She shuddered, thinking of what was to come. "I'll have to start studying. I can't let the coven hurt any of you."_

" _Tell me everything you'll need." Ryder said from behind them. They turned to face him. Skye took notice of the bandage around his ankle. She decided not to question it but made a mental note to ask about it later. "Rubble said you had some really…exotic ingredients to make that spell to stop gravity. It saved Alex's life, so if you need things like that, tell me what they are, how to get them, and I'll have them at the lookout as fast as I can." Skye smiled, happy to hear the support she had. She couldn't believe that she was going to leave them behind. It hadn't fully dawned on her until then that while she'd protect the team from witches, they'd do everything in their power to protect her as well. There wasn't any way she'd leave them behind again._

" _First things first, let's eat and just enjoy the day. We'll have plenty more."_

* * *

The ARW turned off, and Skye looked at all the pups.

"So, what'd you think?" she asked.

"I'm glad I was finally somewhat relevant in one of these stories." Rubble commented.

"I think this will have to be another one for us to revisit eventually." Chase said. "Along with PAW Patrol Z, International Patrol, and the Barkingburg PAW Patrol."

"I don't know if International Patrol should be on that list." Rocky said.

"I beg to differ." Everest argued.

"It was cool and entertaining to watch, but does anyone else feel like it took forever?" Tracker asked, making all the others confused. "I don't know why, I just feel like that a bit."

"Now that you mention it, it does feel like I've been sitting for months now." Marshall agreed.

"Maybe we should take a break and come back to it." Ryder said. "You know, go outside and stretch our legs." All the pups agreed and stood up, making their way toward the elevator. Carlos decided to take this time to go and do his errands.

* * *

 **Well, this took months to do. Not for any particular reason, just kind of been working through some stuff lately. I probably won't have anything up before Christmas, but I'll at least try to get something up a little quicker than four months later. Anyway, I'll start writing the next one, which will be Tracker soon. If anyone still has a suggestion, please tell me. Again, though, I should not be interacting with reviews.**

 **Also, if the ending seemed off, please call me out on that. The last half of this chapter I was doing while I was half asleep, or trying to finish it before I had to go to work.**

 **If anyone has any OCs they'd like to see either cameo or be featured in a chapter, please tell me all necessary information about them. (Name, breed, age, anything else you deem necessary.)**

 **And this is the list of spells, along with the English phrases they were translated from:**

 _ **Peto, nate, gravitas. Ad virtutem flectere. – I beseech thee, gravity. Bend to my power.**_

 _ **Quod factum est a sanguine, erit in damnum. – Undone by blood, shall be the damage.**_

 _ **Flamma – Flame**_

 _ **Glacies – Ice**_

 _ **Mercurius pede – Hermes paw**_

 _ **Draco ignis – Dragon fire**_

 _ **Simas – Condense**_

 _ **Dimitte – Dismiss**_


End file.
